Penarth Youth talent on show during Good Friday fixture

SINCE the beginning of the 20th century, 1901 to be more accurate, Good Friday has been a day of good rugby and much fun for Penarth and the neighbouring towns and villages. It was the time for the wandering tribe of the Barbarians to invade the Seaside town for the eagerly awaited Easter tour of South Wales.

It was always Penarth on Friday, Cardiff on Saturday, Penarth again on Sunday, but for golf rather than rugby, then Swansea on Monday and occasionally Newport, whenever available, on Tuesday. It was all gone by 1996, as the game turned professional, though the Penarth fixture disappeared from the Barbarians programme 10 years earlier.

But for the people of Penarth, Good Friday meant rugby as the Easter Friday fixture had entered during the previous 85 years in the genetic make-up of the town. Aware of its attraction the Seaside club made huge efforts to find an alternative for the rugby-hungry crowds.

It was Public School Wanderers, the Crawshays, a few Sevens tournaments, you name it, but they did not last long, until the launch in 2001 of the Penarth Youth versus Crawshays Youth fixture, which slowly turned into the main Good Friday attraction. It lasted more than 10 years, but then as Penarth Youth got increasingly assertive and perhaps too strong for their own good, the Crawshays officials decided to abandon the fixture, finding an excuse in some kind of rowdy behaviour of the club’s young supporters.

This Good Friday, 30 years after the Barbarians left for good, the fixture was again fulfilled by the all-winning Penarth Youth side, against a District Youth XV, an excellent initiative that benefits both the club and of course the talented youngsters of Cardiff and District.

Players from nine district clubs, including Penarth, were selected for the District team captained by loose-head Mac James, one of the six St Joseph’s RFC youngsters in the squad. Penarth won 29-11, a somewhat expected outcome, taking into account their unbeaten season record as well as the excellent quality of the tuition provided by head coach Colin Laity, a former Neath, Cardiff and Wales B centre and his fellow assistants Simon Rees and Andrew Pyman, the latter a former Penarth prop.

Rees, provided sterling service during the absence of Pyman, taken ill at the beginning of the season, though his return to coaching a few weeks ago helped Penarth forwards assert themselves against a very strong District pack. Penarth Youth chairman Richard Smith pointed out this is a particularly talented generation of players, though no less than six of the 15 who started against the District are in their first year of youth rugby.

“I have to say that I had a dilemma when I announced the team.” said head coach Colin Laity.

“Several of our Year Three players (Youth starts at 17) who came back on their Easter break made themselves available to play, but I owed one to the Year One and Year Two boys who played throughout the season. There was no question that they had to start given the contribution they have made during the season, so basically we had only two Year Three players in the starting line-up, Owen Rees the scrum half and James Wales the fullback. The other 12 were Year Two and One players, with most of the Year Three boys on the bench,” added Laity.

The match was played in good spirit with Penarth running the ball at every opportunity. The skill standard of the Penarth players was probably the outstanding feature of the game, with all points scored by the backs, four tries by Leon Appiah, James Walsh, Derek Grotz and Sam Laity, with outside half Morgan Smith adding a penalty and three conversions.

Penarth Youth (1-15) Josh James, Morgan Jones, Josh Stafford, Owen Lloyd, Sam Davis (captain), Nathan Frost, Rhys Jones, Sum Sullivan, Owen Rees, Morgan Smith, Jac Ursall, George Roberts, Dekklan Grotz, Leon Appiah, James Walsh; (16-25): Jordan Ong, Alex Drake, Matt Holder, Calum McSorley, Aled George, Morgan Rees, Sam Laity, Jacob Frost, Cenghizan Zeathin, Ewan Thomas

Referee: Martyn Benzer (Llanharan)