SEASIDERS’ TRIES SECURE BONUS
PENARTH (26) 45 PORTH HARLEQUINS (17) 31
Of course high-flying Penarth would have too much for bottom-of-the-table Porth. Wouldn’t they? They would, but it was a frustratingly close-run thing.
You could already see what sort of a game this was going to be in the first ten minutes. After a knock-on in the Quins’ 22, the Seasiders worked quick ball to the right-hand corner, where Ben Wellington opened the scoring. However, within minutes, a fatal hesitation in defence allowed Porth lock Daniel Davies to cut straight through the middle to the home 22. A failed line-out then allowed Porth to gain the lead with a short-range try.
The Penarth pack we having a quiet afternoon and having little luck subduing the visitors in scrum or line-out, while the breakdown was more of a lottery than usual. Which meant that the home side had few opportunities to bujld any momentum and had to rely on grabbing any chances they could to create some magical tries.
In this fashion Penarth re-took the lead on 18 minutes. From a turnover in their own half, Ben Jones made the first advance, but then Harry Wood made an early bid for his man-of-the-match status with a stunning line-break from half-way. Storming his way into the Porth 22, he was finally obliged to pass to his supporting captain and Miles Jones completed the score.
Another messy period of play then yielded a second try for Harlequins. Driving forward from a scrum in the home 22 with penalty advantage, they played on and inside centre Cam Williams, arguably Porth’s star player, completed the score.
Again the Seasiders struck back quickly. From an innocuous-looking line-out on half-way a blindingly rapid passing movement along the backs put Ben Jones though for the third try. While the Quins were still looking lively, a failed drop-goal attempt suggested a lack of ambition and Penarth soon extended their lead with a fourth try and a bonus point as Spencer Robinson shook off attempted tackles to go round behind the posts.
With half-time in sight, the Seasiders led 26-14, but as Porth converted a penalty to pull this back to 26-17, the break couldn’t come soon enough.
Penarth came encouragingly out of the traps for the second half and soon picked up the fifth try. A forward drive from a scrum secured field position in the away 22 and Owen Lloyd completed the score.Then a minor brawl was rather surprisingly judged in the Quins favour and tight-head prop Morgan Hill ploughed over from the ensuing line-out.
Now leading by a precarious-looking nine points, the Seasiders had little option but to keep scoring tries to extend the lead. They’re quite good at this and while there seemed to be no real threat as they took a line-out on their own 10m line, Robinson had ideas and opportunities. He kicked ahead down the tramlines and followed up so quickly that when the opposing wing completely missed the ball, he was running clear for his second try.
The final Penarth try was a simple affair from a scrum 5, with Alex Thau picking up at the base and going over. This left all of 20 minutes remaining. The Seasiders led by 21 points, seemingly home and dry. However, Porth had other priorities and quite fancied the idea of a bonus point. This was achieved as they scored their fourth try and with twelve minutes to go, a fifth try would even have brought them a second point, with the lead reduced to fourteen points. Two converted tries and it would have been a draw! Thankfully none of this happened, as confusion continued to reign until the referee finally blew for time.
No league fixtures next weekend, as it’s Division 1 Cup 2nd round. Llanharan have been drawn drawn against Abercynon (A) if anyone’s interested.
The Seasiders resume with an away fixture at Llanishen, who are one place beneath in the table, but fully seven points adrift.
Penarth: Ben Jones. George Roberts, Joe Williams, Andy Richards, Ben Wellington (Rhys Beynon), Rhys Mottram, Spencer Robinson, Harry Wood, Tom Griffiths (Mason Good), Alan Doyle (Sam Sully), Owen Lloyd, Cameron Sultana, Evan Jones, Miles Jones ©, Alex Thau
Scorers: Spencer Robinson (2 tries), Ben Wellington (try), Ben Jones (try), Owen Lloyd (try), Miles Jones (try), Alex Thau (try), Rhys Mottram (5 conversions).
