SEASIDERS START BRIGHTLY
Penarth 26-29 Treharris
Penarth RFC started the 2022-23 with a difficult looking pre-season fixture against Division 2 side Treharris at St Cyres School last Saturday. Whilst the result was a narrow defeat the performance was extremely promising particularly in the attacking third. The match was split into three periods to ensure as many players as possible got some game time with Penarth fielding an impressive 30 players over the 80 minute period.
In front of a big crowd, with the visitors bringing 2 bus loads down from Treharris, there was a clear difference in size between the two squads with Penarth having a numerical advantage whilst the visitors had a clear physical advantage, particularly in the forwards. It was this difference that paid dividends early in the first period as Treharris kicked a penalty to the corner and rumbled over with impressive rolling maul.
Penarth soon worked out that the keeping the ball quick and away from contact was the way to go and they made repeated breaks through the middle of the park with Morgan Williams, Andy Richards and Harry Williams linking up brilliantly to exploit weaknesses in the Treharris defence. After a period of sustained pressure the first Penarth score came from a familiar source as new vice captain Spencer Robinson showed his turn of pace down the blindside to scoot over the white wash.
After having the better of the first period Penarth unfortunately found themselves behind at the first break after Treharris had the better of a comical chain of events which saw Penarth overthrow a lineout before the ball was hacked up into the air only to be missed by the Penarth defence and bounce kindly into the arms of the advancing Treharris attack to cross for their second try and take a 12-5 lead.
The second period was a more disjointed effort from both sides as the heat and hard ground started taking its toll and Penarth’s set-piece went a little bit awry. The first score came after Penarth had managed to build an attacking position on the Treharris 5m line only for a wild pass to find its way into the hands of the Treharris centre who ran the length of the pitch to extend their lead. Penarth hit back almost immediately with Rhys Beynon splitting the Treharris defence with two fine dummies to go under the posts and bring the score back to 12-17. But as was turning out to be the way of things Treharris found themselves back ahead after a loose pass in midfield flat footed the Penarth defence and the other Treharris centre helped himself to a try.
The final period saw Penarth field what was probably their strongest available XV and it showed. Up front debutant Bradman Williams made an impressive impact as did hooker Tom Griffiths who was in fine form. Cameron Sultana showed that his summer has not detracted from the significant progress he made last season as he was the only Penarth player to appear in the full 80 minutes. New captain Miles Jones led from the front as Penarth really took it to Treharris and a sustained period of pressure saw Spencer Robinson record his second try of the afternoon.
Treharris came out flying from the kick off and soon got their noses back in front with another well worked forward effort but it was Penarth who finished the strongest as they piled on the pressure in the final 10 minutes. Their dominance was finally rewarded after Morgan Williams exploited a gap in the stretched Treharris defence to go under the posts and give Josh Hurley an easy conversion to finish the scoring.
Penarth have a week off next week before jumping into league action with a stiff test away at Llanharan which will provide an early indication of whether they will be challenging for promotional honours this season.
Penarth Squad: M Jones, S Robinson, R Beynon, R Morgan, H Williams, G Roberts, G Kynaston, A Richards, L Appiah, O Rees, J Docherty, J Hurley, M Williams, T Arthur, M Wiltshire, J Crothers, H Wood, B Williams, E Barry, T Grififths, R Jones, D Hedgecoe, A Lang, C Sultana, M Lang, J Peterson, S Davies, J Spragg, R Rees, AJ Jones
