Seasiders Climb to Eighth

Penarth  31-24 Penygraig (HT-17 – 10) 

Another game, another bonus-point win, but still plenty for the coaches to work on in the next fortnight! Dominating all phases of play, Penarth twice got themselves into a comfortable position in this match, only for a very ordinary Penygraig side to claw their way back into contention.

For most of the first half excellent work by the Seasiders pack starved Penygraig of possession and it was fully 35 minutes before they got into the home 22. By this time Penarth had already scored the game’s first tries. A huge storming break from a stolen line-out by Chris Mortimer made all the difference and the ball was swiftly worked wide to Jimmy Crothers who scored in the corner after 17 muntes.

‘Graig narrowed the gap briefly four minutes later with a 30-metre penalty, but all the pressure was coming from the Seasiders. Into the away 22 for the umpteenth time with the opposition denying preventing quick ball as usual, Spencer Robinson nevertheless ripped an apparently killed ball out of the ruck and fed Kevin Maddox. The outside half broke the line and put Rhys Beynon into the narrowest of gaps; the centre was way too strong for the two tacklers as he surged to the line.

Leading 10-3 with five minutes left to half-time, Penarth faced a first visit to their own 22 by the ‘Graig and as a well-aligned defence awaited the outcome of an attacking scrum, they strangely missed the full-back as he entered the line. Well tackled, but his momentum carried him over.

All that hard work and a couple of mistakes had lost them the lead. However, Man of the Match Spencer Robinson had other ideas as he fielded the return from the restart. The scrum-half conjured up a signature solo try from 60 metres with two side-steps and riding three perfectly good tackles!

The Seasiders were looking lively at the start of the second half, but still spilling too many passes to totally dominate proceedings. Leading 17-10, they extended the margin with a 40 metre penalty from James Docherty, but conceded a penalty to the visitors minutes later and a perfectly executed catch-and-drive again reduced the arrears to 20-17.

Another Docherty penalty stretched the lead again to six points, but despite a glut of possession and a string of penalty awards as ‘Graig infringed their way out of trouble, the try that would bring the bonus point and finally put the game to bed simply wouldn’t come.

The relentless pressure finally told and after a lengthy siege going through multiple carefully-managed phases, Ben Hill tore himself out of a tackle and strolled around behind the posts.

The closing phases were a formality as another Docherty penalty put Penarth into a 31-17 lead, but the last minutes seemed to go on forever as the visitors went in search of a consolation losing bonus point. A late tackle on Mortimer went unpunished and dissent from the home team gave ‘Graig the field position they needed to gain a 5 metre line-out, try and conversion with the last move of the game.

The Autumn internationals now give Penarth a fortnight to prepare for the away fixture against second-placed Fairwater. The Cardiff club have clearly reached this lofty position on the back of a remarkable defence, as they have only scored 11 tries against the Seasiders’ 30. A good result there would be a huge boost for the Seasiders and consolidate their mid-table position.

PENARTH – Rhys Morgan ©, James Crothers, Owain Lord (James Docherty), Rhys Beynon, Ben Hill, Kevin Maddox, Spencer Robinson, Richard Merrett (Sean O’Sullivan), Iwan Baker, Alan Doyle, Owen Thomas (Harrison Pugsley), Andy Lang, Alex Fulton (Josh Spragg), Chris Mortimer, Dan Seal

Scorers – Crothers (T), Beynon (T), Robinson (T), Hill (T), Docherty (3P, C)

FIVE-TRY SEASIDERS’ FIGHT-BACK

Treharris 54 – 29  Penarth (HT 26- 7)

The Seasiders, with a patched-together pack following late withdrawals, gave everything in a scrappy, rough-and-tumble game at sunny Treharris Park last Saturday, but still came off second best. With only two forwards in what you could call their accustomed positions, they gave a ferocious account of themselves and should be proud of their efforts.

Penarth even took the lead in a remarkably even first half as Dan Seal led the way and a telling break from captain Rhys Morgan, lining up on the openside flank, set Aaron Thomas running on the left wing. Recycled ball quickly worked out to the left, where Ben Hill broke a last-ditch tackle to score behind the posts.

Treharris, for all their bluster, were having all sorts of trouble getting into the Penarth 22, but caused terrible damage when they did. Two tries in two minutes brought them the lead by the 14^th minute, but the Seasiders managed to keep them penned in their own half until the 39^th minute.

The Phoenix then scored another unlikely brace of tries before half-time to put the game beyond a stunned Penarth. Trailing 26-7 at the turn-round, they rallied in the second half to score four more tries for a bonus point. Treharris threw everything at them from the kick-off, but over-cooked things, allowing Owain Lord to make a clean intercept in his own 22 and run all the way to the line. Tom Smith was in support all the way, but the hosts ran clever interference to prevent the offload. However, Lord cleverly got the pass away to Aaron Thomas who completed the score.

The Phoenix totted up another score straight from the restart as the Seasiders’ handling let them down and the Treharris hooker pounced to score.

Trailing 33-12, Penarth were still making all the running and Kevin Maddox was over under the posts as the referee decided there’d been crossing, but they were not to be denied as Lord made another clean break with Alan Doyle in support. The tighthead prop had support in place, but didn’t need it as he drove to the line,

Unfortunately the Seasiders were beginning to tire and Treharris continued their annoying habit of scoring in bursts as they clocked up another three tries in ten minutes to lead 54-19 going into the last five minutes,

Undeterred, Penarth stuck to their guns as they went in search of a fourth try for a bonus point. This duly arrived on 77 minutes as a tapped penalty from Maddox failed to come off, but a second immediately afterwards turned out differently. Spencer Robinson took this one and simply skipped and accelerated through the entire defence for a great solo try

The scrum-half even went one better on the stroke of full time as he picked up a pass on the Treharris 10 metre line and weaved his way over from 40 metres despite the close attention of four defenders.

In a rearranged fixture, The Seasiders will now travel to meet Clwb Rygbi Cymry Caerdydd at Pontcanna Fields next Saturday.

PENARTH – Tom Smith, Aaran Thomas, Owain Lord, Rhys Beynon, Ben Hill, Morgan Smith (Kevin Maddox), Spencer Robinson, Harrison Pugsley, Ryan Jones, Alan Doyle, Dan Seal, Owain George (James Crothers), Alex Fulton, Rhys Morgan, Chris Mortimer.

Scorers – Hill (T), A.Thomas (T), Doyle (T), Robinson (2T), T.Smith (2C)

Penarth Bowled Over at Pentyrch

Pentyrch 38 – 26 Penarth (HT 28-5)

And so any dreams of the Millenium Stadium in April are cast aside for another year as a calamitous performance, admittedly interjected with flashes of brilliance, saw Penarth bow out of the WRU Bowl in the second round at Pentyrch last Saturday. With just 1 win in 6 matches thus far this season this Seasiders squad need to start turning some of their undoubted promise into results and fast.

Penarth were on the back foot from the outset as a determined Pentyrch side came at them hard and fast and made the most of a strong breeze to dominate territory and possession in the early stages. Then went 7 points up after just 10 minutes and were soon back in the Penarth 22 where centre Rhys Beynon was shown a yellow card for retaliating to some not insignificant provocation from the home outside half. Penarth held firm with 14 men but Pentyrch breached the Penarth defence again just before the half hour mark as outside centre Marley ghosted through some poor tackling to score under the posts.

Penarth then sparked into life with Morgan Smith breaking the line before feeding Beynon who offloaded beautifully to second row Harrison Pugsley who in turn showed great hands to feed Harry Williams to cross for an unconverted score near the corner.

But any thoughts of Penarth being back in the match were soon dismissed as Penarth contrived to concede two of the softest tries you’ll see all season. First a penalty deep in their own 22 was taken quickly rather than hoofed to touch only for the second pass to go to ground where it was promptly hoofed on by Pentyrch centre Huw Rees who then fell on the ball for an easy score. And if that wasn’t bad enough within 5 minutes a horrible mix in the Penarth back line saw the ball passed straight into the hands of Rees to scamper over for another 7 point score. At 28-5 at half time there seemed little hope for the Seasiders.

After what can only have been some harsh words at half time Penarth flew out of the traps and after a period of pressure a fine miss pass from Smith saw Harry Williams open his legs to make a decisive break before feeding Spencer Robinson who showed a clean pair of heels to the defence to go under the posts to close the gap to 16 points with Tom Smith’s conversion.

However, Penarth must still have been basking in their own minor glory because no less than 3 mintues later they were back under their own posts after Pentyrch winger Nathan Williams ran fully 50 metres without so much as a finger being laid on him to score in the corner.

For all their current technical frailities, you cannot say that this Penarth side lacks heart. They put aside the setback and battered the Pentyrch line for the next 10 minutes resulting in a deserved try for Beynon who was a thorn in the home team’s side for the whole game, Rhys Morgan converted and the gap was back to 14 points. It now obviously goes without saying that Pentyrch scored next and that the try was soft and Penarth should have done better, and the game was now lost.

Nevertheless Penarth had the final saw as a mixture of offside and high tackle using no arms saw Penarth collect a penalty try for their troubles to leave the final score 38-26 and end their Bowl journey.

There are many reasons to enjoy the spirit and style of this Penarth team and the backline in particular holds some real gems in the shape of Rhys Beynon, Owain Lord, Tom Smith and the flying wingers Harry Williams and Spencer Robinson who have accumulated three tries each already this season. However, despite the sides ability to put together phases of play which are beyond many at this level they also seem to lack the ability to carry out some of the basics anywhere near adequately enough to really stamp their mark. The number of missed tackles, dropped balls, unnecessary offloads and wayward or absent kicks must be of huge frustration to the coaching team of Matt Bolton and Tristan Davies. To turn the common proverb if this Seasider’s team can learn to walk as well as it can run then they can be a real force this season but there seems to be a lot of hard work to do to make that happen.

Penarth: R.Merrett (S.O’Sullivan) L.Richards, Ryan Jones, H.Pugsley, O.Thomas, O.George (A.Rigby), A.Fulton, C.Mortimer, R.Morgan(c), M.Smith (K.Maddox), S.Robinson, R.Beynon, O.Lord, H.Williams (B.Hill), T.Smith

Scores – H.Williams (t), S.Robinson (t), R.Beynon (t), Penalty Try,  R.Morgan (con), T.Smith (con).

SEASIDERS SECOND BEST

Penarth (0) 7 Tylorstown (12) 27

Having broken their duck in a Bowl win the previous week, Penarth now faced a different sort of challenge in the shape of old rivals Tylorstown. You always know what you’re going to get from Tylie and that’s intensity – they haven’t changed a bit. To be fair, a determined Penarth team matched the visitors’ fire, but the Rhondda Fach side were just that  bit better at it.

Nowhere more so than at the breakdown, where the Tigers were able to field specialists in the dark arts to maintain their own possession and consistently slow that of the hosts. That the Seasiders were able to make this a far closer contest than the scoreline suggests is very much to their credit.

Penarth initially came under real pressure in the scrum and although they held their own, Tylorstown always managed to make it difficult to obtain quick ball. The first try arrived after 13 minutes as a 5 metre line-out from a penalty was driven, but as the maul fragmented, the Penarth defence was also split and lock Matthew Paul went over in the corner.

Now the game opened out as both sides attacked with some fluency. The Seasiders came close on a couple of occasions, but it was the Tigers who conjured up a cracker of a try after 25 minutes. Crossing the Penarth 10m line, their outside-half popped up a short pass to the outside centre coming in at an angle and wrong-footing the Penarth defence to go over under the posts.

A Rhys Beynon kick ahead then nearly resulted in a try and Penarth gained a 5m attacking line-out, but this part of the hosts’ game wasn’t delivering the desired results and no score came. The Seasiders were soon back again as Beynon made 20 metres and a penalty was kicked to touch, but again without yielding a score.

Tylorstown were under immense pressure during this second quarter, but survived by conceding a string of penalties without further sanction until they lost their key man and captain to the bench in the 39^th minute.

The opening fifteen minutes of the second half showed Penarth at their best, with relentless pressure being applied by Beynon and his centre partner Owain Lord, added to trademark attacking runs from full-back by Tom Smith. In the end, the centres combined again to bring play up to the visitors’ line, where yet another penalty was tapped before the was ball worked quickly towards the posts where Elliott Smith completed the score.

Much more in this vein as the Seasiders eyed a mere five-point gap at 7-12, but the pressure only resulted in a further yellow card for the visitors as try-scorer Paul departed. Unfortunately, this only served to fire the Tigers up and following a turnover from a Penarth handling error they counter-attacked smartly, creating an overlap out wide where left wing Keiron Richards went over in the corner to extend the lead to 7-17.

Penarth rang the changes in search of a way back into the game and the scoring chances came and went in a game which was visibly disintegrating in the poor conditions. Tylorstown were even under enough pressure to choose to take three points from a rare penalty in the Penarth 22 in the final quarter.

It just wasn’t going to be Penarth’s day, was it? As the contest lost shape entirely as the referee tried to maintain control under a barrage of abuse from the travelling support, openside flanker Adam Phillips claimed the bonus point for his side with a soft fourth try in the 78^th minute.

The Seasiders turned in a number of fine individual performances, but ultimately they failed cope adequately with the visitors’ game-plan or the sort of conditions that turn the ball into a bar of soap.

Hopefully both of these factors will be absent next Saturday as they travel to second-placed Cowbridge in search of that elusive first league win.

PENARTH – Tom Smith, Spencer Robinson, Owain Lord, Rhys Beynon, James Crothers (Harry Williams), Morgan Smith (Kevin Maddox), Rhys Morgan, Richard Merrett, Iwan Baker (Sean O’Sullivan), Ryan Jones, Andy Lang, Harrison Pugsley (Liam Richards), Alex Fulton, Elliott Smith (Owain George), Chris Mortimer.

Scorers –Elliott Smith (T), M Smith (c)

So close but yet so far

Penarth 19-20 Clwb Rygbi Cymry Caerdydd

Another game and another near miss and unfortunately for this Penarth side whilst they were no doubt on the wrong side of some unfortunate refereeing decisions it was ultimately their own mistakes which cost them this match. Again though there were significant positives to take from this match, as well as a second consecutive losing bonus point, and this was a marked improvement from the previous weeks match.

The game could not have started any better for Penarth as Spencer Robinson fielded a long kick from the Clwb Rygbi fly half and fed the returning Nick Davenport who set off on a barnstorming run, the type of which was one of the highlights of last season. As Davenport was finally felled the ball was worked swiftly from left to right where Harry Williams showed pace and power to score out wide. A beautifully judged conversion from Morgan Smith saw Penarth establish an early 7 point with a gusty wind at their backs.

Then followed a rather bizarre passage of play deep in the Penarth half where despite the aforementioned strong wind the home side repeatedly failed to make use of the same to clear their lines. The result was that after a turnover ball a quick snipe from Clwb scrum half Mike Perry opened up a gap which flanker Deian Thomas was only happy to charge through and score under the posts to leave an easy conversion for the prodigious boot of Oli Jenkins.

A tight calf saw Elliott Smith withdraw from proceedings after 15 minutes to be replaced by birthday boy Mike Clare at number 8 and debutant Oli Burrows had 10 minutes convalescence after a bump to the head with Harrison Pugsley entering the breach temporarily. Penarth were once again totally dominant in the scrum and were winning penalties at will, albeit the referee seemed to take a dim view of much of the Seasiders other work particularly at the breakdown which was a constant source of relief for the visitors. From one such scrum penalty deep in their 22 Penarth scored an early contender for try of the season. Skipper Rhys Morgan went quickly and fed Morgan Smith who streamed through the defence before releasing speedster Robinson on the wing, three outrageous side steps and 50 metres later it looked like the young winger was going over for the try but he was pulled just inches short of the line. However, fresh from his rest Burrows was right on hand to sweep the ball off the deck and complete the formalities, although Morgan Smith was unable to add the extras from a far easier position than his first attempt. So at half time Penarth were holding a 12-7 lead.

The second half opened with Clwb exerting territorial pressure from the boots of Perry and Jenkins and with a strong wind in their faces Penarth struggled to escape. Some steady phases saw Richard Merrett make yards outside the 22 but the prop became isolated and an attempt to remove unwanted Clwb hands from the ensuing ruck saw captain Morgan rummaging around for a jumper to keep himself warm as he spent 10 minutes on the touchline. It was in this period that Clwb capitalised and ultimately won the match. Jenkins added three points for the penalty and swiftly afterwards, following what appeared to all and sundry to be a knock on by the Clwb forwards, the Penarth defence one again opened invitingly for Thomas to romp over for his second try of the match. Jenkins added the extras and a further penalty shortly after to the visitors open up an 8 point lead with 20 minutes to go.

But as with last week Penarth refused to give up and the rest of the match saw the home side relentlessly attacking the visitors line. This change in mind set is certainly one of things that coaches Matt Bolton and Tristan Davies must be pleased with as on too many occasions last season in a position like this Penarth folded all too easily. With 10 minutes to go and following a number of thwarted attacks Penarth secured a scrum 5 metres from the Clwb line. A sustained press saw the Penarth pack moving ominously towards the line, and no doubt a timely 41st birthday present for Mike Clare, when the Clwb scrum disintegrated and the referee headed straight under the posts for a penalty try.

As with last week Penarth then found themselves in great positions in the Clwb 22 only for the lineout to fail them once again. But they were not put off and some fine running from Tom Smith and James Thatcher along with some nice touches from the returning Kevin Maddox so Penarth up a potential match winning position with a penalty 5 metres from the line and 10 metres to the left of the posts. Conceding that the wind conditions were not conducive to goal kicking Penarth put their trust in the pack. However, Clwb had encountered a very timely and convenient injury to their prop forward meaning scrums would have to be passive and Penarth’s inevitable shunt to the line was thwarted before it started. Both Aaron Ellis and Nick Davenport were stopped in their tracks just inches short of the line before the referee decided that Penarth had been guilty of holding on to the ball in the ruck within in sight of the line and victory. Clwb were able to secure the ball and retain until the clock reached 80 minutes and see it off the park for victory.

Penarth will no doubt be disheartened by the manner of the defeat but there were good signs not least in terms of personnel. Seeing Ellis, Davenport and Anthony Pine back on the field gives Penarth a huge boost in the forwards whilst the continued spark provided by Robinson on the wing and Tom Smith at full back are enough to excite the home supporters. Next week sees Penarth make their first foray into the WRU bowl where they will face Division 3 East Central B side Llantwit Major, it will be the Llantwit’s second trip to Penarth in as many weeks as they were defeated in the league by the Old Pens last week.

Penarth: Richard Merrett, Ryan Jones, Alan Doyle, Nick Davenport, Anthony Pine (Aaron Ellis), Oli Burrows (Harrison Pugsley), Chris Mortimer, Elliott Smith (Mike Clare), Rhys Morgan, Morgan Smith, Spencer Robinson, Harry Wiliams (Kevin Maddox), James Thatcher, James Crothers, Tom Smith

Scorers: Harry Williams (t), Oli Burrows (t) Penalty Try, Morgan Smith (c).