SEASIDERS’ GRACEFUL EXIT
SWALEC Plate Round 2: Penallta 48 Penarth 3 – Saturday 5 January 2013
Having been kept waiting four weeks by the festive weather, the Seasiders were finally allowed to bow out of this season’s Swalec Plate and can now, thankfully, “concentrate on the league”.
If Penallta’s position in the upper reaches of Div 1 East wasn’t daunting enough, the fact that injury-racked Penarth had already been firmly ejected from the competition 42-8 by Div 2 East leaders Bedlinog (only for the Foxes to be found guilty of fielding an unregistered player) meant there wasn’t much to be gained from the exercise.
The Seasiders arrived at Ystrad Mynach with a formidable-looking front row, but since Richard Merrett was the only qualified member, it was uncontested scrums from the outset. This removed at a stroke any genuine platform the visitors might have had.
That said, the game turned out to be not quite all the hosts imagined until quite late in the proceedings. Twenty minutes passed before either side managed a score and this was as much due to sterling work in defence by Penarth as the Pitmen’s over-eagerness and inability to control their own ball.
The Seasiders had also put in time in the hosts’ twenty-two, but Penallta finally managed to stop spilling ball and, having gone ahead with a penalty, put together a fine handling movement, putting the outside-centre over by the posts. Penarth pulled back three points with a Nathan Smith penalty, but the home side pulled further ahead just before half-time as their tight-head found himself on the end of another slick handling movement.
A 17-3 scoreline after 40 minutes must have seemed ample reward for the visitors and they were excellent value for the opening twelve minutes of the second half, going through more than a dozen phases in the shadow of Penallta’s posts before a single handling error allowed the home right wing to run the length of the field to score. The Seasiders continued to exert a good deal of pressure as Chris Mortimer and Owain George swapped places in the back division while the pack tore into the home defence.
The match had moved into the final quarter before the hosts finally pulled away, running in four tries in the last twenty minutes. Had the Penarth been at full strength, it might have turned out differently, but then they would have had a cup run rather than being able to get on with the rather more important work of staying in Division 3 South East. This starts again next Saturday when they travel to fifth-placed Cardiff Quins in an effort to go one better than a narrow 20-25 home defeat back in September. Mortimer, Merrett and Hoffman were the scorers on that occasion.
PENARTH Rhys Morgan, Owain George, Mike Hurley, Mike Rowe, James Crothers, Nathan Smith, Chris Mortimer, Richard Merrett, Scott Mackie, Matt Sutton, Dan Hofmann, Jon Boland, Adan Cole, Elliott Smith, Marc Devine.
League Division 3 South-East
Saturday 12th January 2013
Cardiff Harlequins v PENARTH
The Diamond Ground, Forest Farm Road,
Whitchurch, Cardiff
Kick-off 2.30pm
