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 39th 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 78th 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)
