SEASIDERS HALT LOSING RUN

Penarth 13 Gwernyfed 13 – Saturday 28 February 2015

Despite having lost their previous four games, the Seasiders are still not out of the race to avoid relegation, even after drawing at home to close rivals Gwernyfed. The Talgarth club had already leap-frogged Penarth the previous week with an unexpected 22-8 win against third-placed Pontyclun and this only consolidated them in eighth place.

Facing a strong wind from the Lavernock Road end, the Seasiders were in for a tough first half and fell behind to a penalty after 10 minutes when an offside decision allowed G.Williams to put his side into the lead. The wind was in full control and Penarth found it all but impossible to get out of their own half, let alone make any progress.

Gwernyfed weren’t able to add to their lead either, despite such a territorial advantage, but with 5 minutes remaining in the half, they finally got over the line, outside half G.Williams the scorer, converting for a 10-0 half-time lead.

Luckily, the wind didn’t drop during the break and the Seasiders’ forwards were at last able to gain useful field position. This soon yielded a 5m line-out and the drive saw Mike Clare over in the corner for an unconverted try. James Docherty reduced the arrears further with a penalty after 55 minutes, but Gwernyfed soon responded with a penalty of their own to push the score back out to 8-13.

With the clock running down, Penarth applied themselves to the task in hand and with 5 minutes remaining, they won another 5m line-out and the drive again yielded a try, with Elliott Smith the scorer this time. The Seasiders defended well in the remaining minutes to hold on to the draw, but once again a vital win eluded them.

The Seasiders now find themselves in a race for the last relegation place, with two points separating them in tenth from Pentrych in seventh. This makes the broad assumption that both Fairwater and Wattstown will be unable to exploit their games in hand to close the gap on the teams above them.

One thing’s for sure, Penarth simply have to beat bottom club Wattstown at Ynyshir Road this coming Saturday, as failure will leave them a mountain to climb.

PENARTH Rhys Morgan (Kevin Maddox), Alex Thau, James Thatcher, Tom Luck, James Crothers, Gareth Mathias, James Docherty, Richard Merrett, Simon Barry (Jerome Bryan), Sean O’Sullivan, Mike Clare (Chris Mortimer),Stuart Clarke, Richard Howells, Elliott Smith, Tom Bartlett.

Scorers: Mike Clare T
Elliott Smith T
James Docherty 2P

Swalec League Division 2 East Central
Saturday 7th March 2015
Wattstown v Penarth
Ynyshir Road, Wattstown
Kick-off 2.30pm