SEASIDERS FIND NEW BANANA SKINS
Penarth 24-25 Penygraig (24 – 6)
This must really have hurt. Call it what you will: a game of two halves, three points spurned, etc,. but this was a ridiculous way to turn down the chance to move up to third place, only 10 point behind Pontyclun.
Admittedly Penarth were a little unlucky to lose two players to the bin and ship two tries in the last five minutes, but having secured their bonus point before half-time, they ought to have been way out of sight well before it all went pear-shaped.
As you might guess, it all started so well. With only a minute on the clock, the Seasiders won a turnover in midfield and conjured up a try out of the top drawer. Spencer Robinson fed James Docherty, who broke the line before passing out to Thaine Baker, who hurled a massive miss-pass out to George Roberts on the right wing. he simply accelerated away from the cover to score in the corner.
Within four minutes, Penarth were 10-0 to the good. Docherty cleared from the restart, but the diagonal kick again found Roberts on the touchline. The wing cleverly stabbed a grubber into the 22, where Harry Williams picked up to score under the posts.
Penygraig briefly came into the game before the tenth minute, winning and converting two penalties, but the Seasiders were to run in two more tries before half-time.
Following a messy line-out and ruck, the forwards secured the ball and worked it back to Docherty. The outside-half swiftly put up another cross kick to the left touchline, where Williams picked it up on the bounce, exchanged passes with Josh Hurley and cruised through to the posts.
The remaining 20 minutes of the first half were a premonition of the second half, as Penarth pressure was steadily converted into errors, but they still had one more trick up their sleeves. On the stroke of half-time, Roberts fielded yet another cross-kick, but this time cut inside the covering wing as Williams arrived on the loop to take the reverse pass and head for the posts.
With the bonus point secured and 24-6 up, it should have been more of the same for the Seasiders, but they simply couldn’t add a single point to their half-time score. Penygraig, on the other hand, simply never gave up. Stalemate ensued in the third quarter until the hosts gained and missed a kickable penalty from 25 metres and from then on, ‘Graig steadily ate into Penarth’s lead.
Their inside centre broke three tackles to score from a 5m line-out after 62 minutes and although the Seasiders seemed certain to score following a huge break from Williams, the rest of the game belonged to the visitors.
The score still sat at 24-13 with only five minutes to go, but Penygraig were laying siege to the Penarth line when Owain Lord was sent off with a yellow card. Despite this setback, the hosts held out and cleared to touch. However, in the following line-out, Mason Good also got yellow and the writing was on the wall as ‘Graig made no mistake in securing their second try to bring the score to 24-18.
Despite all this, the Seasiders could still control their destiny and camped out in the visitor’s 22 with about two minutes left after a characteristic drive from Miles Jones. The penalty duly arrived and was duly missed from the same distance. ‘Graig scored their third try almost from the restart, as yet another cross-kick found their outside centre in space. The match-winning conversion from touch was a formality.
The fixture list has been kind to the Seasiders and the next challenge is a trip to the Diamond Ground to face bottom-of-the table Cardiff Quins: played 6, lost 6.
PENARTH:
Rhys Morgan ©, George Roberts (Ben Hill), Harry Williams, Andy Richards (Owain Lord), Josh Hurley, James Docherty, Spencer Robinson, Harry Wood (Geraint Williams), Mason Good, Alan Doyle, Andy Lang, Alex Shore, Josh Spragg (Sam Davies), Miles Jones, Thaine Baker (Liam Richards)
Scorers: Harry Williams (3 tries), George Roberts (try), James Docherty (2 conv).
