NO CUP RUN FOR SEASIDERS
PENARTH 12 BRECON 30 – Saturday 17 October 2015
This SWALEC Plate tie against Div. 1 East Central Brecon was a lot closer than the score suggests, but once again the Seasiders played well, showed promise, but nevertheless lost.
To be fair to Brecon, they probably won the game in the first five minutes with two unanswered tries. The first arrived after only 24 seconds, as some neat work from the kick-off by the half-backs set up centre Eifion Jones for a clean cut-through on an angle and full-back Jake Newman took the scoring pass. Penarth struck back from the restart with an excellent James Thatcher break up the left flank, but a poor inside pass in the Brecon 22 was decked and scrum-half Blake Parata needed just two well-judged hacks ahead to score at the other end of the pitch.
The Seasiders didn’t seem too worried by these set-backs and set about working their way back into the game with a will. James Crothers narrowly avoided scoring in the corner and the side were generally dominating proceedings from the position a being two scores adrift. The Penarth scrum had already established their accustomed dominance over the visiting eight, but the backs simply couldn’t turn this into points.
Pressure thankfully told in the end, as a scrum penalty in the Brecon 22 was kicked to touch, with the catch-and-drive leading to a Scott Mackie try after 25 minutes. The hosts continued to press for the remainder of the first half, but the only further score was a Brecon penalty on the single occasion they visited the home 22 and the teams turned around at half-time with the visitors leading 17-5.
The Seasiders began the second half poorly as errors handed field position to Brecon, who ended up with a 5m line-out. Clean ball off the top was delivered to number 8 Cashel Chilvers who broke round the front of the line-out and scored in the corner.
Penarth finally woke up at this point and started playing some rugby. They put together a wonderful mixture of forward and back play, featuring driven mauls, a clean break from Alex Thau and finally a handling movement that resulted in a second try for Mackie which brought the arrears back to 12 points as Brecon led 12-24
That, unfortunately, was as good as it got for the Seasiders; the replacements were sent on and it was Brecon’s turn to dominate the remainder of the tie. An extensively re-shuffled Penarth pack gave an excellent account of themselves, but errors in the back division eliminated any chance of closing the gap and the visitors secured a further two penalties to finish comfortable winners, despite scoring only three tries to two.
The Seasiders may find next week’s opponents more to their liking, as bottom club Treherbert are visitors to the Athletic Field following a catastrophic 0-94 defeat in their SWALEC Plate tie away at Barry.
PENARTH James Candy, Adam Lewis, James Thatcher, Tom Luck, James Crothers, Nathan Smith [James Docherty], Rhys Morgan, Owain James, Mason Good, Alan Doyle, Robert Rees, Lloyd Huxton [Simon Barry], Scott Mackie, Elliott Smith, Alex Thau
Scorers: Mackie (2 tries), Docherty (conv).
Division 2 East Central
Saturday 24th October 2015
PENARTH v Treherbert
The Athletic Field, Lavernock Road
Kick-off 2.30pm
