SEASIDERS SECURE SAFETY
PENARTH 34 ST PETERS 33 – Saturday 22 April 2017
On a day of small margins, relegation from Division Two East Central was finally sorted out and Penarth secured their position with a nerve-wracking last-minute win against third-placed St Peters. Meanwhile Abercynon were sending Pontyclun down with a 23-22 win which kept them up as well.
The Seasiders kicked off towards the Lavenock Road end and soon found themselves under pressure from the visitors who decided to run the ball back deep into the Penarth half. The ball was worked out to their right wing T Meehan who ran in to score the first try of the afternoon converted by outside-half Ben Thomas to make the score 0-7.
We’d seen all this before, but any thoughts that the Seasiders would go down without a fight were dispelled as they were determined to get on the score sheet as soon as possible and worked their way quckly upfield where AlexTthau was able to carry over the opening home try. Rhys Morgan converted to bring the scores level at 7-7.
Undeterred, the Rocks came back with a further period of pressure resulting in Meehan scoring a second try, with a third arriving almost immediately as left wing L Mainwaring went over, leaving the Seasiders with a mountain to climb as they trailed 7-21 after 20 minutes.
Fortunately, they seemed to be under no illusions about the seriousness of the situation as they gained ground in the St Peters’ 22 and a concerted drive from the forwards led to Alex Thau scoring again to pull the score back to 12-21.
Close to the end of the first half the Penarth forwards were again driving towards the line but this time ball was worked out wide to James Thatcher who scored his side’s third try, converted by Morgan to leave the match finely balanced at 19-21 as the half time whistle was blown by Llanharan referee Gareth Butler
As the second half opened the Seasiders seemed to have gained the upper hand in the tight, causing the St Peters’ eight all sorts of problems and going backwards on their own put-in. Taking one of these scrums against the head, Penarth worked the ball out to Adam Lewis on own 10 metre line. The outside-half responded with tremendous break, a 55 metre solo run to score a sensational try in the corner, which went unconverted, but nevertheless gave his side the lead at 24-21.
Soon afterwards it was again the Seasiders on the break, with Chris Mortimer making ground before passing on to Lewis who once again scored, the conversion extending the lead to 31-21. Again, any thoughts that the game was over were thoroughly misplaced and the Rocks struck back immediately with a try from second row S Vaughan to close the gap to five points.
With time running out rapidly, St Peters gained a penalty which allowed them a lineout close to the Penarth line. The throw bizarrely failed to go to hand and Rocks’ number 8 D Jenkins had only to picked up and touch down for a score that edged his side into the lead again at 31-33.
With 5 minutes still on the clock, the Seasiders stormed into St Peters half from the restart and with less than a minute to go, the visitors conceded a penalty. James Thatcher converted to leave Penarth 34-33 in front as the final whistle went. The bonus-point win leaves the Seasiders in eighth place, with their final position waiting on the final game between Abercynon and Clwb Rygbi next weekend.
Penarth Youth, meanwhile, will be capping off another successful season by playing in the final of the East District Cup at Glamorgan Wanderers’ Memorial Ground on 6th May, kick-off 2.30 pm.
PENARTH Mitch Hickey, James Thatcher, Tom Luck ©, Chris Mortimer, James Crothers, Adam Lewis, Rhys Morgan, Sean O’Sullivan (Richard Merrett), Peter Lloyd, Alan Doyle, Owen Thomas (Aaron Ellis), Matt Allen, Scott Mackie, Alex Thau, Harry Roberts
Scorers: Alex Thau (2 tries), Adam Lewis (2 tries), James Thatcher (try, penalty)
Rhys Morgan (3 conversions)
