SEASIDERS IN CHARGE

Fairwater 21-47 Penarth (HT 7-23)

Happy days, eh? After three close-shave wins and a home defeat in the last four matches, the real Penarth stood up and took charge away at Fairwater.

On a very windy afternoon in west Cardiff, it was set to be the usual physical encounter, but it soon became obvious that a strong Seasiders’ line-up was up for it. They dominated possession in the opening minutes and went ahead with a Josh Hurley penalty.

This didn’t seem to worry Fairwater as they exploited two successive penalties almost from the restart to claim a try in the corner, but Penarth struck back straight away with another Hurley penalty, this time wind-assisted from half-way.

Minutes later the visitors took a firm grip on proceedings as Bradman Williams expertly fielded a return kick and produced a stunning offload to James Docherty who lifted a neat pass outside to Spencer Robinson, who cruised home. A third Hurley penalty extended the lead to 9 points and constant pressure from the Seasiders in the home 22 brought a close-range second try by Mike Lang and a half-time score of 7-23.

Turning into the wind, the immediate challenge was to manage the inevitable Fairwater fight-back as Penarth had been reduced to 14 with a yellow card. Clearly buoyed by their half-time pep talk, Fairwater threw themselves into retrieving the situation and gained immediate success with two quick tries, bringing the score back to 21-23.

The hosts could clearly smell blood, but restored to full strength, the Seasiders simply crushed any pretentions that Fairwater might have had and responded with a magnificent four -try burst in the last twenty minutes.

First up was a near score in the left-hand corner, then a superb short-passing backs move to the far corner, with Man-of-the-Match Nathan Frost looping around for the try once they’d run out of hands.

As Fairwater lost a man to a yellow card, Penarth upped the pace and flew into the attack. Rhys Beynon made the critical line-break and while Harry Wood looked certain to score, it was Tom Griffiths that finally finished off the move.

Now firmly in control, the Seasiders pressed home their advantage from a routine Nathan Frost catch-and-drive at a 22m line-out and the fifth try courtesy of Sam Sully. Yet another line-break, this time by George Roberts and yet another try as Ben Jones tracked the play all the way, taking the scoring pass on half-way and accelerating to the posts.

© Peter Weston 27-Mar-23

PENARTH:

Josh Hurley (Ben Jones), George Roberts, Andy Richards, Rhys Beynon (Josh Powell), Harry Williams, James Docherty, Spencer Robinson, Harry Wood, Bradman Williams (Mason Good), Sam Sully, Andy Lang, Nathan Frost, Mike Lang, Miles Jones ©, Tom Griffiths (James Crothers).

Scorers: Sam Sully (try), Spencer Robinson (try), Mike Lang (try), Nathan Frost (try), Tom Griffiths (try), Ben Jones (try), Josh Hurley (3 pens, 2 conv), James Docherty (2 conv).