SEASIDERS MOVE UP TO MID-TABLE
Penarth 19 Porth Harlequins 17 – Saturday 27 April 2013
The Seasiders came as close as they possibly could to losing a game they should have won with ease, but we shouldn’t really complain as the finally rose above the 10th place in Division 3 SE that they seem to have been stuck in since about October.
Since Porth were one of the teams they threatened to leap-frog, the visitors put everything into exploiting a stiff breeze in the first half and got off to a flying start. Lock Adam Eggar found himself on the end of a huge overlap to score in the corner.
Penarth fought back effectively, but had no answer after 14 minutes when Porth outside-half Gregg Morris tapped a penalty and put in a cross-kick for left wing Adam Cameron to score in the opposite corner. Neither of these tries was converted, which was to give the visitors cause for regret as the drama unfolded.
Despite facing into the strong wind, the Seasiders were beginning to put some moves together and Mike Hurley drove a penalty into the Porth 22. A simple catch-and-drive from the line-out failed to yield a score as the ball-carrier was turned over the line, but the next line-out was far more profitable. Richard Merrett peeled off and charged for the line, Richard Ball following up to dive over the ruck to score.
Although Penarth were to dominate the remainder of the half, they still needed to negotiate some scares and it took a good tackle from left wing Dan Rees to stop right wing Anthony James from extending his side’s lead.
Now the Seasiders launched a hug pick-and-drive adventure as Porth replied with high tackles and after making 50 metres, there was a slight pause for the award of a yellow card to a ludicrously offside defending prop before the line-out manoeuvre yielded a second try just before half-time. This time James Beaton took the clean catch, again Merrett peeled and Aaron Ellis took his turn to pick up and stretch to the line for the score.
Turning round with their backs to the wind in the second half, it was realistic to expect Penarth to bulldoze the visitors with their all-round superiority up front and when Gary Power was mauled over from 10 metres after only four minutes for a 19-10 lead, the game was only going one way.
However, some adverse decisions somehow allowed Porth into the home 22 and they were once again pretty clinical once they’d got field position – scrum-half Dafydd Morris going over in the corner for a try that was, this time, converted.
That was the story of the game in a nutshell. Mike Hurley had neatly converted the Seasiders’ first two tries, the home side led 19-17 with twenty minutes to go and that proved to be the final score.
Time to stuff it up the jumper, you’d have thought, but Penarth had ambitions involving a bonus point, while Porth could see only too clearly that a fourth try would do the same for them. Cue game break-up, attack and counter-attack, scares and alarms.
The main strike runner for the visitors was full-back Chris Cutter. Stopped just short of the line on one occasion, he was back within minutes and over on the end of a forward pass. The Seasiders were pinned back in their own 22 and as Cutter ran back a clearance from half-way, stand-in wing Adan Cole felled him with a superb tackle and the game was safe.
The Seasiders’ final games of this campaign are now scheduled for after the bank holiday, Fairwater being the visitors on Wednesday 8th May in a game at Cwrt-y-Vil, while curtain comes down after the rearranged fixture away at Tonyrefail on Saturday 11th May.
PENARTH Rhys Morgan, Dan Rees, Ben Donovan, Mike Rowe, Adan Cole, Mike Hurley, Chris Mortimer (Gareth Clancy), Richard Merrett, Joe Page, Gary Power (Sean O’Sullivan), Richard Ball, James Beaton, Aaron Ellis, Elliott Smith, Matt Sutton.
