SEASIDERS OUT OF SORTS IN STOP-START GAME

Penarth 13-7 Pontyclun (HT 10-0)

After the exhilaration of last week’s victory at Fairwater, the expectation was that this would be a routine win against the side in eighth place, nearly forty points behind the Seasiders. After all, the away fixture back in November was just that, at 43-6, but this time the Badgers were having none of it and pushed Penarth all the way.

After a good deal of confusion over where or whether the game would be played, the referee got one thing right, despite a displaying fine selection of puddles, the pitch was playable.

The Seasiders opened with an inspired bit of rugby for their first try after only four minutes. A line-out was secured out on the left flank and the ball safely delivered to James Docherty in midfield. The outside-half feinted to pass left, but held the ball long enough for George Roberts to arrive at an angle from the right wing and slalom through the defence for a cracking score.

Unfortunately, that was it, as far as expansive running rugby went, since the game was tightened down into a stop-start struggle. This wasn’t what either side was looking for, as everyone put a massive effort into moving the game beyond a couple of phases at a time.

Penarth spent a good deal of time in the Badgers’ 22, but without reward until they finally secured the penalty they probably needed. Touch, line-out secured, mauled to line, Tom Griffiths scores another classic hooker’s try. The Seasiders dominated the remainder of the half, but no further scores.

Josh Hurley extended the lead to 13-0 early in the second half, but Penarth were making heavy weather of it all. Pontyclun came back strongly and gaining momentum with two successive penalties, the second tapped, and opened their account. This left the score at 13-7 after 55 minutes, but no further scores were to be had.

Plenty of incident, though. George Roberts nearly scored his second, but was bundled into touch at the last moment. Miles Jones found room for a line-break, making 60m, then the Seasiders put in a massive effort from an attacking line-out, but several phases along the try-line yielded nothing.

Finally, in a comical last act, an attacking scrum, maul and phase play ended up with Docherty diving over for a score that was disallowed for two knock-ons and the final whistle followed.

With six games remaining and leading the division by 16 points, Penarth next head for Graig Park to face 6^th placed Penyraig. The result at the Athletic Field in December was 31-17.

© Peter Weston 02-Apr-23

PENARTH:

Harry Williams, George Roberts, Andy Richards, Rhys Beynon (Josh Hurley, Osian Phillips), Josh Powell, James Docherty, Spencer Robinson, Harry Wood (Geraint Williams), Tom Griffiths (Mason Good), Ryan Jones, Matt Allen (Sam Davies), Cam Sultana, Harry Roberts, Miles Jones ©, Nathan Frost

Scorers: George Roberts (try), Tom Griffiths (try), Josh Hurley (penalty),

SEASIDERS’ LAST GASP

Penarth 13-12 Canton (HT 5-0)

A wintry spring evening with a strong wind and sharp showers of rain provided us with a game between first and ninth. There was precious little entertainment, few scores and dissatisfaction for both sides.

Canton had first use of the wind and decided in favour of the usual tactic of hoofing it 60 or 70 metres down-range at ever opportunity. While this made it hard work for Penarth, it didn’t benefit the visitors as they struggled to overcome a spirited home defence.

The Seasiders finally seized a rare opportunity to break out as a Canton handling error allowed a hack ahead, which was followed up with alacrity, forcing the visitors’ left wing into touch for an attacking line-out. A second line-out from the ensuing penalty was mauled to the line, where Spencer Robinson claimed the score.

Minutes later the visitors earned a chance to pull three points back with a penalty right in front of the posts, but the kicker slammed it straight at the crossbar and the score remained at 5-0 after 16 minutes.

The rest of the half held little interest, but involved plenty of incident, including an unsightly brawl and Penarth being later reduced to 14 players for nigh-on 15 minutes. The last move the first half was a rare penalty for the Seasiders which James Docherty converted for an 8-0 lead.

Playing into the wind in the second half, the Dervishes lived up to their official nickname and tore into Penarth. Docherty sent in a series of kicks towards the away 22, but the Seasiders simply couldn’t turn all the possession and field position into in the face of ferocious defence.

Canton were rarely seen outside their half, but in a 5-minute spell around the hour, they managed two excursions into the Penarth 22 and came away with points on both occasions. Twelve points from two tries catapulted them into an 8-12 lead with 15 minutes remaining.

Canton’s plan of mitigating the wind disadvantage by knocking the Seasiders out of their stride was now working for them and the visitors dominated a good deal of the play. Penarth, while not lacking in effort, were looking rather lost and a second defeat in successive home games began to look likely.

However, the Seasiders aren’t league leaders by accident and never lost their knack of scoring tries. With only two minutes remaining, they had a scrum in the Canton half, delayed through treatment to some of the visitors’ players. On restart, Robinson cooly picked up from the base, looped right, finding George Roberts in position on the touchline. The free-scoring winger made it look easy added upped his season’s tally in all competitions to 13.

While the next game after publication will be the away fixture at Fairwater, Canton RFC will have visited the Athletic Field on Wednesday 22-Mar-23 in another rearrangement.

Yet another last-gasp escape showed that winning is a habit and remain 12 points ahead of new challengers Llanharan.

© Peter Weston 23-Mar-23

PENARTH:

Ben Jones (Josh Hurley), George Roberts, Andy Richards, Rhys Beynon, Ben Wellington, James Docherty, Spencer Robinson ©, Harry Wood (Geraint Williams), Bradman Williams (Mason Good), Sam Sully, Andy Lang (Matt Allen), Alex Shore, Tom Griffiths, Mike Lang, Tom Marsh (James Crothers).

Scorers: George Roberts (try), Spencer Robinson (try), James Docherty (penalty).

PENARTH SECOND BEST

Penarth 10-23 St.Albans (HT 10-12)

After the exhilaration of beating unbeaten Pentyrch the previous Tuesday, a much-changed Penarth side could be excused thinking it was going to be a hard act to follow. So it proved.

It’s not that anyone had a bad game and for the first twenty minutes, it looked as if the Seasiders would be able to grind out some sort of win, possibly without a bonus point!

The ‘Buns started with a rush and the energy they brought to the encounter was a feature of the whole eighty minutes. It cost them a penalty at the first ruck and Penarth attacked from the line-out, gaining a penalty for a deliberate knock-on, which Ben Jones converted.

All the momentum at this point was with the hosts, as the visitors conceded penalty after penalty. Suddenly, Harry Williams unleashed a spectacular 50-22 and the Seasiders prepared to turn the screw. The line-out was a catastrophe, but Cam Sultana saved the day and drove back into the 22. The first pass went astray, but Bradman Williams latched on to the ball and carried some defenders with him over the line for a 10-0 lead.

St.Albans seemed to be rattled, as they continued to throw themselves into it, but that all changed when they worked their way into the Penarth 22. Here’s where they knew exactly what they were up to and forced their way over for an unconverted try.

Undaunted, the Seasiders were soon back on the attack, but the visitors managed to hold on while the atmosphere of the game seemed to get a little darker. Harry Williams was forced to depart injured following a penalty-yielding tackle and then Ben Jones’ kick rebounded off the far post.

Things got worse as Matt Allen limped off minutes later and as half-time approached, the ‘Buns again found themselves in the home 22 for only the second time. Same result, though as they repeated the moves from their first visit. This time the try was converted and they went into the break with a two-point lead.

It had been noted that the visitors’ outside half had a siege-gun boot on him, but no-one expected him to drop a 50-metre goal almost straight from the kick-off. Even then, Penarth were still in the hunt and dominated the third quarter without scoring. Unfortunately, the game was getting more and more chaotic, which certainly suited the visitors’ purposes.

When St.Albans’ outside-half thumped over a rare penalty from 40m on the hour, there was a feeling that the game was slipping away from Penarth. The ‘Buns could smell blood as well and four minutes later hauled themselves into the Seasiders’ 22 for the third and decisive time. This time they went through a couple of phases before moving it wide to the left wing, who exploited a missed tackle to score. 10-23, game over.

Even now Penarth could see that just one try would bring a losing bonus point and reduce the deficit to six points. Taking matters into his own hands, Rhys Beynon made a massive break from half-way, breaking every tackle but the last one as he was stopped 1m short of the line. By now the ‘Buns were celebrating, while the Seasiders now have 11 days to regain their composure and recover from their injuries before the next game.                                  © Peter Weston 05-Mar-23

PENARTH:

Harry Williams (George Kynaston), Ben Wellington, Andy Richards, Rhys Beynon, Josh Powell, Ben Jones, Spencer Robinson ©, Geraint Williams (Harry Wood), Bradman Williams, Ryan Jones, Matt Allen (Sam Davies), Andy Lang, Cam Sultana, Tom Griffiths, Tom Marsh.

Scorers: Bradman Williams (try), Ben Jones (penalty, conversion).

A GAME OF TWO HALVES (AGAIN)

Penarth 47-5 Cardiff Quins (HT 40-0)

Normal service was resumed at the Athletic Field last Saturday after weeks of postponements and conditions were good for a game of running rugby. The ensuing 80 minutes provided glimpses of this vision (including another 7-try haul), but it was all rather strange. Penarth nevertheless extended their lead at the top of Div 3 East Central by a point.

Once again, it was a game of two halves. The Quins were limited, but totally committed in their approach and ultimately overwhelmed by the Seasiders’ ability to carve out opportunities facing resolute defence. The opening scores both resulted from charge-downs. Rhys Beynon claimed the first after 8 minutes, while James Docherty showed exemplary presence of mind on 13 minutes to follow his own charge-down and touch down with inches to spare.

After such a storming start, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when the bonus point was secured after only 17 minutes. The third try came after a run from deep by Josh Hurley was carried on my Miles Jones, who cut through the defence and almost reached the goal line before he was forced to feed the supporting Matt Allen for the try. The fourth arrived almost from the restart as Spencer Robinson ran it back though a crowded midfield with a classic dummy before Josh Powell left the defence for dead with a powerful finish.

Despite being left standing by the relentless try-scoring, the Quins were still managing to frustrate Penarth’s more conventional attacks and never let up in their defensive efforts. This approach worked for nearly twenty minutes, during which time the visitors never once look as if they would score themselves.

The last five minutes of the half brought two more tries for the Seasiders. A line break on half-way brought the three-quarters into play as Harry Williams shrugged off a challenge and made ground before feeding Powell for his second try. Hurley once again nailed the conversion for a 35-0 lead. Then, as half-time approached, Docherty fielded a high ball and fed Nathan Frost, who made a rapid 20 metres with replacement wing Ben Jones in support to complete the score in the corner.

There was probably an expectation that Penarth would be able to extend their lead in the second half, but as the Quins cleverly exploited their wind advantage along the touch-line, much of the play stagnated in the home side’s half. The visitors even pulled back a score on the hour as their outside-centre found a gap in the defence to score from 10 metres.

In a period where the Seasiders were unable to create any clear-cut scoring chances, it was left to Spencer Robinson to secure the seventh try with a spectacular display of side-stepping as he slalomed past any number of tackles for a final score of 47-5.

With the next two weekends being devoted to the Six Nations, Penarth will now be out of league action until they travel to play Old Illtydians on 18-Feb-23.

PENARTH:

Josh Hurley, George Roberts (Ben Jones), Harry Williams, Rhys Beynon, Josh Powell, James Docherty, Spencer Robinson, Harry Wood (Geraint Williams), Bradman Williams (Mason Good), Sam Sully, Matt Allen, Andy Lang, Nathan Frost, Miles Jones ©, Cam Sultana.

Scorers: Josh Powell (2 tries), Spencer Robinson (try), Ben Jones (try), Rhys Beynon (try), James Docherty (try), Matt Allen (try) Josh Hurley (6 conversions).

SEASIDERS TRIUMPH IN DERBY RETURN

Penarth 41-17 Old Penarthians (HT 22-17)

I would have liked to report that “Penarthdefeated Old Pens in a fast and open game”, but that wouldn’t be strictly accurate or fair to either side in this essentially good-natured friendly. Good to see the fixture back after a lengthy hiatus, but slippery conditions conspired against the finer arts and the Seasiders’ dominance was largely due to the club’s ability to field the stronger squad.

However, in a scrappy first half, the Old Pens were arguably having the better of things and working towards field position from where they stacked up three tries to pull level at 17-17.

The Penarth squad was an exhilarating combination of Athletic, Youth and returning exiles, plus a critical injection of first-team regulars, especially in the second half.

The first half was evenly contested. The Seasiders opened the scoring after 5 minutes, as Owen Rees put through a grubber for his backs to chase, a contest that was won, hands down, by prop Sam Sully. Old Pens struck back eight minutes later as they patiently worked an overlap on the right for the equalising score.

Penarth then opened up a twelve point lead with two quick scores, each involving a line-break and an irresistible acceleration to the line. First it was the returning Nathan Frost restoring the lead, then Evan Jones showing a blistering turn of pace to push that lead out to 17-5. Only for the Old Pens to pull it all back with two tries in the last 10 minutes of the half.

However, the Seasiders clearly had no intention of allowing this sort of thing to continue and the final move before half-time involved a massive break from the Old Pens’ 10m line by George Kynaston. The full-back was finally caught in the 22, but Frost was on hand to complete the score.

The sides turned around with the Seasiders leading 22-17 and, as several first-teamers were brought on, the Old Pens serious interest in getting anything out of the game largely disappeared.

The visitors continued to throw everything into it, but increasingly heavy rain made handling difficult and scoring chances for both sides went begging. In the end, there were so many more opportunities for Penarth that there was little doubt how it was all going to finish.

A Josh Powell break after 54 minutes was interrupted as he was tackled on the try-line, but Owen Rees was on hand to skip around the remaining defenders for his side’s fifth try. Frost was again added to the scoresheet as he completed his hat-trick on the hour and Powell himselfsecured the seventh of the afternoon with a trademark powerful run.

© Peter Weston 26-Dec-22

Scorers:, Sam Sully (try), Nathan Frost (3 tries), Evan Jones (try), Owen Rees (try), Josh Powell (try), James Docherty (3 conversions).