SEASIDERS LOST IN ACTION

PENARTH 7 CLWB RYGBI CYMRY CAERDYDD 38 – Saturday 1 April 2017

The relegation-threatened visitors had everything to play for and this bonus-point away win has pretty well settled the matter in their favour. Good luck to them. Quite what was Penarth’s part in all this was never entirely clear.

Recent performances have all been a weird mixture of error and excellence, but this game, with the exception of the one smartly-taken opportunist try, was one to forget. The Seasiders’ usual competence in both defence and attack were both called into question and found wanting.

Clwb dominated the early exchanges as Penarth struggled to get out of their own 22, but after 10 minutes, a swift attack from a tapped penalty sliced the defence open and lock Owain Tudur scored under the posts. Almost immediately, another laboured breakout by the Seasiders was halted and possession stolen. A pass out wide to Pat Emmannuel allowed the number 8 to crash over and send his side into an early 14-0 lead.

Penarth seemed to have woken up by this point and came up with some ideas. Matt Allen chased a long kick ahead into the Clwb 22 and the last defender came in from the right, but missed the dropping ball. Following the bounce towards the line, Allen was certain to score, but was brought down off the ball. The clearest case for a penalty try, but the referee, despite a yellow card for the offender, wasn’t having any of it.

A series of 5-metre scrums failed to yield anything for the Seasiders, who might have been better advised to take the points, but their first score soon came from a Clwb break-out. An intelligent-looking cross-kick was overrun by the right wing and James Crothers took the ball neatly in the air on half-way before pinning his ears back and scoring behind the posts.

Penarth seemed to be steadying up a little, but also developed a tendency to take weird risks, usually losing the ball in contact and turning over possession. One of these allowed Clwb to make a 60m break and establish a platform in the Seasiders’ 22 which yielded their third try after 37 minutes.

Penarth started the second half with renewed confidence, having regained dominance in the scrum. However, this made little difference to their position in the game as they wasted possession with poor decision-making and simply trying too hard to score tries rather than settle for getting the scoreboard moving.

By now both sides were looking like relegation contenders as the error count mounted and the yellow cards came out. Clwb were content to bide their time and this paid off 27 minutes into an otherwise scoreless half as the Seasiders attacked and a pass that was 100% guaranteed to be picked off was thrown anyway and Clwb right wing Jack Lewis raced 50 metres for the touch-down.

Trailing 26-7, the Seasiders had run out of time and ideas, so it was no surprise when Clwb helped themselves to the last two of their six tries. First they took their time with an attacking scrum before Tudur sold a leisurely dummy and trundled over for his second try; then, just before the final whistle, their left wing cut inside on the Penarth 10m line and went through a string of despairing tackles to score under the posts.

The Seasiders have an early opportunity to put things right as they travel to Gilfach Goch next Saturday. Their opponents are in sixth place, but just one point separates the teams. Penarth edged the corresponding home fixture 18-17 back in December.

 

PENARTH James Docherty, Nathan Palmer (James Thatcher), Tom Luck ©, Chris Mortimer (Tom Hillman), James Crothers, Mitch Hickey, Rhys Morgan, Jerome Bryan (Matt Holder), Mason Good, Sean O’Sullivan, Aaron Ellis (Caleb Docking), Matt Allan, Scott Mackie, Elliott Smith, Harry Roberts (Mike Clare)

Scorers: James Crothers (try)

James Docherty (conversion)

 

Division 2 East Central

Saturday 8th April 2017

Gilfach Goch v PENARTH

The Welfare Park, Heol-y-Parc,

Gilfach Goch CF39 8RH

Kick-off 2.30pm