SEASIDERS SECURE FINAL SPOT
Penarth 18-10 Caerau Ely (HT 5-7)
Last Wednesday night saw Penarth book their place in the East District’s Malcolm Thomas Cup Final with a fine 18-10 victory against Caerau Ely RFC at Cardiff Arms Park. In front of a sizeable and vociferous crowd, a much changed Seasider’s XV defeated their Division 4 East Central opponents in a keenly contested match.
On paper Penarth, being leaders of Division 3 East Central, should have had more than enough to see off the spirited Caerau side, who are looking set for promotion into Division 3 come the end of the season. However, such is the congested fixture list, Penarth fielded a side showing 14 changes from the previous Saturday’s victory over Pontyclun, with only Matt Allen turning out again. The opposition on the other hand had the benefit of a weekend off following the postponement of their fixture with Old Penarthians and were very much at full strength and on the lookout for a big scalp.
Penarth started brightly with veteran centre, and captain for the evening, James Crothers celebrating his 398th game for the club with a well taken try. Caerau bounced straight back though, with their powerful forwards driving the Penarth pack over the line for a 7-5 lead.
In the second half Caerau continued to pile on the pressure through their relentless forward pack but despite this it was Penarth who scored next through tighthead prop Sam Sully who showed incredible footwork to bamboozle the opposition defence and go over for a score that was converted by Owen Rees.
Caerau continued to press hard for the next score but the only reward they got was through a penalty kick after 60 minutes which brought them within 2 points of Penarth. The Seasiders however, are made of stern stuff these days and even this much changed 15 refused to crack under the constant pressure in the last 20 minutes. There were eye catching performances from centres Osian Coates and Matt Frost whilst replacement prop forward Rhys Newman was impressively destructive with ball in hand.
And at the back Penarth had the benefit of erstwhile captain Rhys Morgan who coolly stepped up to the plate and slotted 2 penalty kicks in the last 10 minutes to seal the game for Penarth and book their place in the final. The final will be held at Glamorgan Wanderers ground against one of Penarth’s title chasing rivals Pentyrch or Llanharan who are due to meet in the other semi final at a date to be arranged.
Penarth: Geraint Williams (Rhys Newman), Ethan Barry (Ben Jackson), Sam Sully, Dan Calahane, Matt Allen, Tom Marsh, Sam Davies (Connor Mitchell), Lloyd Clarke (Josh Spragg) , Osian Coates, Owen Rees (Joe Roberts), Leon Appiah (Matt Frost), Osian Coates, James Crothers (c), Ben Wellington, Rhys Morgan
Scorers: J Crothers (try), S Sully (try), O Rees (con), R Morgan (2 pen)
