Seasiders Washed Out at Ton

The first Ely valley derby of this season was firmly put on hold last Saturday up at Tonyrefail as a waterlogged pitch put paid to the game during the morning. It’s unfortunate to drop such an attractive fixture at this stage of the season, as the Seasiders must have fancied their chances against the bottom club.
Another win after five games which have shown us the best and the worst Penarth have to offer would have happily consolidated their position in mid-table, which after last season’s trials would have been a real achievement.
Even so, the postponement only resulted in a drop of one league place as Porth picked up a try bonus point in a 22-59 home defeat against Aberdare and the Seasiders are still comfortably-placed in eighth position.
A gap has already opened at the top of the table as Cardiff Quins in fifth place are now fully seven points clear of sixth-placed Fairwater, but the real pace-setters are undefeated Pontyclun, following a 44-7 win away at Nantymoel. All of the top five are clearly the form teams at the moment, but the position further down the league is not yet clear.
Only six points separate Fairwater in sixth place from Tonyrefail at the bottom of the table and the next three rounds of fixtures before the autumn internationals will surely shake things up a bit.
The Seasiders have already managed a couple of wins in their first five games, but could easily have won every game but for a tendency to concede soft tries at critical moments. The spirit in the squad is impressive and has allowed them to survive a spate of serious injuries that might otherwise have knocked them off their stride.
Which brings us to this Saturday’s fixture at the Athletic Field which pits Penarth against third-placed St Peters. The fixtures have allowed the Keys a fairly gentle start to the season and all their four wins have been against teams in the lower half of the table. This nevertheless places them ten points above the Seasiders, who need to exploit the fact that the visitors are clearly not the team they were last season when they narrowly missed out on promotion.