SEASIDERS’ UPWARD TRAJECTORY
Cardiff Quins 14 Penarth 21 – Saturday 12 January 2013
The obvious improvement in the Seasiders’ league form we saw up at Aberdare before Christmas had a lot to do with the ferocity of the pack. Last week’s departure from the Swalec Plate taught us little, but on a filthy afternoon up at the Diamond Ground last Saturday the Penarth eight were back with a vengeance as they rumbled past 5th-placed Quins to a long-delayed third win of the season.
With the wind at their backs, the Seasiders went ahead after only two minutes with a Nathan Smith penalty, but the slick Quins back division looked most likely to benefit with their insistent running. However, their pack weren’t so disciplined and referee Darren Jones was alert to their ball-handling tendencies in the ruck and Smith extended the visitors’ lead to 0-6 after 10 minutes.
The Penarth defence were putting in sterling work and it took a clever cross-kick from outside half Carlson to put outside centre Williams in at the corner for what proved to be the only time the home side would cross the visitors’ line.
Play surged back and forth for the remainder of the first half in deteriorating conditions and a third Smith penalty on the stroke of half-time extended the Seasiders’ lead to a still-slim four points.
We needn’t have worried, even as the Quins moved ominously on to offensive from the restart and pulled back three points immediately. A further penalty was missed as Penarth held on to their narrow lead and the introduction of Gary Power and David Jenkins on the hour suggested better times ahead.
Of course it didn’t quite turn out that way as a Power stumble on the fringes of a ruck led to ten minutes in the bin and successive penalties moved the home side into a 14-9 lead with fifteen minutes left.
Joe Page returned at the expense of Daniel Hofman to maintain the integrity of the scrum and the 14-man Seasiders took the game to the flagging hosts as the clock ran down and the weather closed in.
The Quins nearly held out, but with five minutes to go, Power returned and James Beaton took over on the blindside flank for a 5-metre scrum. The first drive was held again, but the hosts had nothing left to stop a drive to the line from Chris Mortimer. A touchline conversion from Smith into the wind gave Penarth a two-point lead to hold on to.
They did better than that. Running the clock down in the opponents’ twenty-two with the Seasdiers’ pack in full cry was only going to end one way and it was the returning Beaton who surged over with a minute remaining to put the result way beyond doubt.
Now five points clear of the relegation zone, Penarth now need to consolidate and have an early opportunity to open the gap further with a rearranged fixture away at 11th-placed Tonyrefail this coming Saturday.
PENARTH Rhys Morgan, Henry Mitchell, James Candy (David Jenkins), Mike Rowe, James Crothers, Nathan Smith, Chris Mortimer, Richard Merrett, Joe Page (Gary Power), Sean O’Sullivan, Dan Hofmann (James Beaton), Jon Boland, Adan Cole (Aaron Ellis), Elliott Smith, Matt Sutton.
League Division 3 South-East
Saturday 19th January 2013
Tonyrefail v PENARTH
High Street, Tonyrefail
Kick-off 2.30pm
