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.