HARD DAYS NIGHT FOR PENARTH

Llanharan 46 – 12 Penarth (HT 19-7)

Following the hugely impressive win at the Old Pens in round 1 of the WRU Bowl competition a much changed Penarth side headed to the Dairyfield last Thursday evening to take on Division 3C stablemates Llanharan. Llanharan were top of the group going into the game with wins against the other two sides in the group, Pontyclun and Pentyrch, but Penarth headed in with plenty of confidence.

There was a noticeable size difference between the two sides, particularly in the forward pack, but this was not going to phase Penarth whose fluent running game is well suited to the current law variations in place post Covid. Indeed it was Penarth who started the brighter of the two, dominating possession and territory as they moved the ball well across the backline with occasional direct bursts from their strike runners Tom Luck, Alex Thau and Miles Jones.

Initial pressure from Penarth brought a penalty advantage which new fly half Ben Jones immediately took advantage of by placing an inch perfect kick behind the pressing Llanharan defence for George Roberts to dot down in the corner, which Jones then expertly converted.

Penarth were soon back on the offensive and as Jones pushed a penalty kick wide which would have given a 10 point lead after 15 minutes there was little sign of what was to come.

Unfortunately at this point the tide turned in favour of the home side and some of Penarth’s old problems started to manifest themselves with missed tackles and a mis-functioning lineout piling compounding the pressure that the big home side had started exerting by monopolising possession and running hard around the fringes of the breakdown.

Three Llanharan tries came before the half time whistle and the homes side noticeably grew in confidence with each score. When they secured their bonus point try shortly after half time to establish a 26-7 lead the game seemed to have gone away from Penarth very quickly and a number of players were clearly fatigued from the exertions of repelling the Llanharan attacks.

There was a glimmer of hope as captain Rhys Morgan scored what can only be described as a fortuitous try as the home side scrambled to clear their lines from within the in-goal area only to see the clearing kick ricochet off the corner flag and into the grateful arms of the Penarth skipper who only had to take two steps and a dive to the tryline.

Any hope of a Penarth revival was soon snuffed out as Llanharan soon reasserted control and ran in a further 3 tries before the final whistle to end up 46-12 winners.

The open part of this competition was always going to be about who could maintain the most consistent starting XV through the holiday period and a mixture of unavailability and injury has certainly hampered Penarth. However, with September now around the corner there should hopefully be a more settled look to the side going forward and with 6 fixtures still remaining in the round robin stages there is plenty of time for the Seasiders to get the results required to progress, starting this weekend with the first home game of the year against Pontyclun.

The second XV also make their seasonal debut with a match against St Joseph’s III at home kicking off at 2.30pm and the club is also fielding a veterans team, aptly code named The Penarth Barbarians, who will be hosting Poole RFC with an early kick off at 11am

PENARTH: Rhys Morgan ©, George Roberts, Andy Richards, Tom Luck, James Crothers, Ben Jones (Kevin Maddox), Spencer Robinson (Ellis Shewring), Geraint Williams (Harry Wood), Liam Richards (Luke Ellis), Cam Sultana, Ben Heywood, Alex Thau, Harry Roberts (Andy Lang), Miles Jones.