Saturday 17 August 2013 – Caerleon v Penarth

Caerleon 5 Penarth 33

The Seasiders met Div 5 E Caerleon last Saturday in a friendly at the Newport club’s Broadway ground. Early pressure by a dominant Penarth pack brought and early reward, as a Stuart Clark half-break set up Scott Mackie for a drive to the line. Caerleon fought back immediately as a Seasiders attack broke down and the ball was fed back to the home openside, who scored in the corner despite the suspicion of a foot in touch.

The hosts were not to trouble the scorers further and the rest of the game was all about a near full-strength Penarth getting their act together in the face of limited opponents who were short of first-choice pack members. The one thing they did have going for them was a well-organised defence who tackled strongly and effectively all afternoon.

On one of the few occasions where the hosts were penalised for offside at the breakdown, Nathan Smith put the penalty into touch on the home 22 and the pack drove over for a Matt Sutton score. The half finished with the Seasiders well in control as they opted for a scrum from a penalty and the pack drove over for a Mike Clare try and a lead of 5-19 as the teams turned round.

As the weather finally closed in, Penarth were probably guilty of trying to play too much rugby in the second half and it took a punishing Jon Boland break to keep the scoreboard ticking over. The lock left a string of tacklers in his wake and when he was finally stopped short of the line, Joe Page was on hand to complete the score.

As Caerleon lost a front-row player, scrums were uncontested and the match descended into farce. Handling errors abounded and frustration mounted, with the wet conditions gaining the upper hand. The Seasiders spent most of this time laying siege around the Caerleon 22 and only one final piece of magic from Nathan Smith, picking up a loose ball and evading four tackles on his way to the line provided any relief.

SEASIDERS FINISH WITH A FLOURISH

Having spent so much of the season apparently flirting with relegation, Penarth ended on a high with two well-deserved wins in four days, charging up the table and finishing at their highest position of 7th with ten wins out of twenty-two matches played.

Wednesday 8 May 2013 – Penarth 17 Fairwater 10

After Fairwater had led through an early penalty, the next half hour was uneventful, Penarth gaining the majority of territory against a gusting wind but failing to translate this into points.

Then, in time added for stoppages James Beaton was carded for an arguable entry on the wrong side and Fairwater won the scrum from the penalty and sent their winger over. The conversion was followed by the half time whistle, leaving the score at Penarth 0 Fairwater 10.

Penarth didn’t put up with this for long and used the wind to prod the ball into the 22. Fairwater used illegal tactics in defence to concede four successive penalties. The ensuing lines out were thrown short to Aaron Ellis twice and then a couple of times to the returned Beaton until the pressure was irresistible with Gary Power driven over and Mike Hurley converting.

Penarth sustained the pressure, while Fairwater earned their own yellow card and as usual tried mixing it. Intimidation doesn’t work with this Penarth front eight so the next score was a Penarth penalty.

The move of the match showed what constant pressure can do. Fairwater had enjoyed a brief dwell on the home line until Hurley belted a relieving kick downfield only for the Fairwater receiver to wilt under the threat of the oncoming home back division and put in a horribly skewed kick which was gratefully collected and spun out to James Crothers who squeezed in at the corner. Hurley hit a marvellous touch-line conversion.

Saturday 11 May 2013 – Tonyrefail 20 Penarth 56

This was champagne rugby from the Seasiders, at least for the first ten and the last twenty-five minutes! With a howling gale ripping straight up the valley at Tylcha Fawr, the team taking first use of the wind was expected to thrive. Penarth certainly lived up to this promise with an early try from Stuart Clark following a break by Richard Merrett and then after ten minutes James Beaton finished off a period of pressure in characteristic fashion.

Trailing by twelve points, Tonyrefail might have folded, but came back in storming fashion with an opening try from outside half A Pugsley and a second from wing O Lewis on the stroke of half-time following a stylish break from centre L Williams. Luckily, Mike Hurley had also slotted over a couple of penalties to keep the Seasiders in front 18-10.

With the hosts turning round with a still-mighty wind at their backs, a Penarth win really didn’t look at all likely, but that was because no-one was to know that the visitors were going to overcome the odds and run in another five tries in the second half.

An exchange of penalties was all that resulted from the first fifteen minutes’ play, but the evidence was already there that Tonyrefail weren’t going to have any more luck than the Seasiders in harnessing the elements. Then the roof suddenly fell in on the home side and the game was over as a contest.

Keeping the ball in hand, the Penarth pack worked it up-field and Richard Merrett went over for his side’s third try and six minutes later, a rather surprised-looking Matt Sutton took a pass outside the home 22 and romped home to score. Having secured the bonus point, the pressure was unrelenting and Beaton broke clear for his second and the Seasiders’ fifth.

At this point, the home side’s classy inside centre L Williams grabbed his own moment in the spotlight with a fine individual try, but with the score on 20-42 with only 14 minutes remaining, this was very much a consolation.

The Seasiders finished in commanding fashion, with Mike Hurley topping off an assured display at outside centre, adding a couple of late tries to 21 points from the boot to end up with a personal haul of 31 points.

PENARTH Dan Rees (Nathan Smith), Henry Mitchell (Louis Chandler), Mike Hurley, Mike Rowe, James Crothers , James Candy , Gareth Clancy, Richard Merrett, Joe Page, Gary Power, Richard Ball (Sean O’Sullivan), Stuart Clark (Jerome Bryan), James Beaton, Mike Clare, Matt Sutton.

Penarth 28 Aberdare 24 – Saturday 20 April 2013

Weather conditions at the Athletic Field last Saturday were the best for some time: almost clear skies, no breeze and a firm ground to play on.

The Aberdare side arrived with the news that it’d have to be passive scrums due to injuries and no replacements for their front row. This was evidently going to cause a few problems as we knew from experience that their outside-half Steve Roberts was very good kicking the ball out of hand.

Straight from the kick-off the ball went loose to the visitors, who elected to kick ahead. The ball landed infield near the touchline close to the 22, bouncing up for Aberdare left wing Ceirion Griffiths to out-jump Rhys Morgan and win the race for a touchdown for a 0–5 lead. It took Penarth 15 minutes to get on to the scoreboard, but Ben Donovan finished off a ¾ movement to score a try which was converted by Mike Hurley. A similar move some 8 minutes later saw James Crothers claim a score which was once again converted by Mike Hurley to put the Seasiders 14-5 in the lead .

Aberdare fought back immediately to claim another score when centre Chris Shellard broke through the defence before passing on to left wing Ceiron Griffiths for his 2nd try, but he scoring wasn’t over yet as Mike Hurley made a good break to score under the posts ,converting his try to make the half time score 21–12 to the home side.

From the restart Aberdare applied pressure to the Penarth line and their number 8 Dan Shaw pulled another try back, converted by Steve Roberts, bring the visitors back to within two points. A mix-up in the Penarth defence then allowed Aberdare’s right wing Lewis Moore to put his side into a 21-24 lead with a try that went unconverted with about 15 minutes of play to go. The Penarth forwards put in some good work, gaining possession in their own half, then a kick ahead eluded the whole Aberdare back division and a chase for the line saw Henry Mitchell get his hand to the ball to claim the try. Mike Hurley again converted to make the final score Penarth 28 points Aberdare 24. The four tries scored by both sides yielded a flood of bonus points and the win was secured thanks Mike Hurley’s 100% record with the conversions.

PENARTH Rhys Morgan, Henry Mitchell, Ben Donovan, Mike Rowe, Mike Hurley, Chris Mortimer, Richard Merrett, Joe Page, Sean O’Sullivan, Richard Ball, James Beaton, Scott Mackie, Aaron Ellis, Matt Sutton .

League Division 3 South-East
Saturday 27th April 2013
PENARTH v Porth Harlequins
The Athletic Field, Lavernock Road
Kick-off 2.30pm

SEASIDERS LOSE A CLOSE ONE

Brecon 14 Penarth 3 – Saturday 13 April 2013

The Seasiders dominated a close game up at Parc de Pugh in poor conditions, but ultimately lacked the guile to turn possession into points and lost a game they should have won.  A low-scoring game started with a flurry of points as the teams exchanged penalties for a 3-3 score after five minutes.

The absence of further scores in the following twenty minutes wasn’t for the want of trying and as Ben Donovan ran on to a smart garryowen from Mike Hurley, it looked very much as if Henry Mitchell was going to squeeze in at the corner, only for the wing to be tackled into touch.

However, as Brecon moved it upfield, referee Matthew J Thomas flourished the first of what would turn out to be a fistful of cards to dismiss Chris Mortimer for ten minutes and scrum-half Dan Edwards charged down a Rhys Morgan clearance to score the game’s only try.

Now the cards started to be waved in the direction of the hosts and as openside Osian Davies followed outside half Gari Davies on to the bench, Ben Donovan was forced into touch just short of the line in the opposite corner. Having tried the open game, Penarth moved smoothly into Plan B and drove a line-out over the line, only for the referee to find himself badly placed and declaring ‘held up’.

As the second half opened, the Seasiders simply repeated the dose, but again the referee failed to position himself correctly and declined to award the score. Although Penarth laid siege at this point, the hosts’ impressive line speed allowed them to tackle the ball-carrier some way behind the gain line on a regular basis and Plan C never quite materialised.

Now Scott Mackie followed his back-row colleague on to the bench and although a seven-man pack was able to keep their try-line intact, Brecon nevertheless completed the scoring with a brace of penalties.

With more than twenty minutes remaining, the Seasiders took the game to Brecon and another Ben Donovan burst as the centre came in at a devastating angle was only stopped by a finely-judged ankle tap and although they ended up with an attacking line-out, the throw was adjudged not straight.

A fourth Donovan break looked as if it would reap some reward with only eight minutes left, but Brecon scrum-half Dan Edwards found himself in receipt of the fifth yellow card of the afternoon in a game bereft of niggle and involving no violent intent throughout.

Still Penarth laid lengthy siege and yet they could find no way through an aggressive Brecon defence that strangely managed to avoid straying offside when it mattered. The stage was set for a last-minute break-out by the hosts and although Gary Power skilfully snuffed out the threat covering back, the final say went to Mr Thomas, who decided that James Crothers was deserving of a straight red card.

PENARTH        Rhys Morgan, Henry Mitchell, Ben Donovan, Mike Rowe , James Crothers, Mike Hurley, Gareth Clancy (Adan Cole), Richard Merrett, Joe Page (Sean O’Sullivan), Gary Power, Richard Ball, James Beaton, Chris Mortimer, Scot Mackie, Matt Sutton