A TEAM FOR ALL SEASONS
Penarth 45-5 Tylorstown (HT 12-5)
On a wet and windy afternoon at the Athletic Field, Penarth successfully navigated a tricky fixture in difficult conditions against Tylorstown. More to the point, in again scoring as many as seven tries, they confirmed their superiority in all weathers. They now lead the division by six points and are easing away from even their nearest rivals.
Still plenty of work to do, as the season is some way short of the half-way mark.
A classic game of two halves it was. The Tigers had the south-westerly wind at their backs for forty minutes and looked good value for all their possession. The first ten minutes passed with the Seasiders under siege and unable to gain any possession at all. It came as a surprise to the visitors, then, when the hosts took the lead. After Tylorstown had crossed, but knocked on over the line, a loose pass was hacked on by James Docherty and following a display of soccer skills, put a grubber through for Harry Williams to claim the try.
The Tigers continued to hog possession as their lively back division benefitted from their pack’s dominance in all parts of the forward game. That this didn’t seem to worry Penarth shows what confidence in your own abilities gives you. Sure enough, as the home forwards struggled in a scrum on the visitors’ 10m line, Mike Lang dug the ball out at the back, went round the blindside with Spencer Robinson in support and the scrum-half sprinted away from the cover to score behind the posts.
The visitors finally got some reward for all their wind-assisted efforts in the last move of the half as their right wing scored in the corner.
As the teams turned around at half-time and the Seasiders got their share of the wind, it was no longer a matter of living off scraps. Now Docherty was allowed to send kicks 60 metres down-range, while Tylorstown’s clearances barely made 10. Penarth notched up the remaining 33 points with some ease.
After 42 minutes, Cam Sultana made a clean catch from a line-out and once the maul was formed, surged away along the tramlines to score. The bonus point arrived minutes later as the pack went thought several phases on the Tigers’ line before Man-of-the-Match Tom Griffiths crossed for his seventh league try of the season.
Mason Good looked as if he had capped his return with a try after a charge-down, but the referee decided it was a knock-on, but this only delayed the next score by minutes as Robinson claimed his second to make it 31-5.
With the points in the bag, the management emptied the bench. Although the rain had eased by this point, it was still heavy going and as Penarth kept up the pressure, leading scorer George Roberts was putting his all into getting on to the scoresheet without reward. His best effort at least created a chance for replacement outside-half Ben Jones to score and he duly obliged.
With the score now standing at 38-5 and nothing much left to play for, the pace eased off a little and the last move involved a foot race between Robinson and Williams for the final try, which the centre narrowly won for his second of the afternoon.
Weather permitting, Penarth will have another home game next Saturday. Fourth-placed Llanharan, the only team to register a league victory against the Seasiders (20-15 at the Dairy Field in September) are the visitors.
© Peter Weston 08-Jan-23
PENARTH:
Josh Hurley, George Roberts, Harry Williams, Rhys Beynon, Josh Powell (Ben Wellington), James Docherty (Ben Jones), Spencer Robinson, Harry Wood, Bradman Williams (Mason Good), Sam Sully (Ryan Jones), Cam Sultana, Matt Allen, Tom Griffiths, Miles Jones ©, Mike Lang (Connor Mitchell).
Scorers: Harry Williams (2 tries), Spencer Robinson (2 tries), Cam Sultana (try), Ben Jones (try), Tom Griffiths (try), Josh Hurley (5 conversions).
