Sunny day, gloomy result (From Penarth Times)

Sunny day, gloomy result

For the faithful who travelled up the valley to Tredegar on Saturday the most excitement was the stunning scenery and a glimpse of the famous town clock.

There was precious little rugby football on offer.

Supporters should have been warned by the prophetic utterance of the gentleman on the turnstile.

"Are you boys Rugby or Football? I'm only taking money for Football". You can only assume from the occasional shouts from the next field that he was a good judge of comparative value.

There was certainly very little to shout about in what Penarth fans were watching.

And this was a great shame because for those who have been frozen, soaked and even on one occasion "fogged off" up at Tredegar the late summer sunshine and gentle breeze offered the chance for rugby at its best.

Not that Penarth didn't try. The difference for an hour and twenty minutes was essentially that Penarth tried as often as possible to give the ball width and to run with it but let themselves down by repetitive basic handling errors.

Tredegar Ironsides, by contrasts, had a kicking out half. Presumably conditions can vary from skating rink to swamp and their Mr. Lake will respond by thumping it down the park.

It's certainly what he did all afternoon on Saturday. His defence would be that it worked. Moving on to what actually happened. The temptation is to evoke the ghost of Paul Daniels and tell you "not a lot!". It was, strangely a game of one half. To whit the half of the pitch nearest the town. In the first half when Penarth defended it they only left it twice. Then having had,presumably, something of a pep talk at half time they spent the second half in the same territory but this time attacking.

All the spectators got out off this was a crick in the neck and very little opportunity to take in the view down the valley.

The breaks in all this are easily recorded. After an initial 15 minutes of steady but uninspired Ironsides pressure and dogged Penarth defence the ball was cleared from the Penarth half for the first time.

Unfortunately this rebounded literally because the inevitable return kick had a vicious reverse bounce which left Brendan Bush stranded and allowed the Ironsides wing and centre to combine in a short dash to touch down in the corner.

There was no conversion and that was the end of the scoring for the remains of the first half and for most of the second.

The highlight was a rare piece of continuity in handling by Penarth culminating in a clever kick and chase by Mark Jones which the Ironside defence just frustrated.

Starting the second half Penarth upped the pace and started to look genuinely threatening. However the Ironsides defence held out and as often happens the long frustration of fruitless pressure ended in a score the other way.

It was right on the end of normal time when yet another Ironsides kicked clearance found Penarth with many more attackers than defenders which allowed an Ironsides score on the only occasion that they had entered the Penarth 22 during the half.

Because Ironsides had experienced a series of time consuming injuries, which the referee allowed to be treated on the park there was considerable time added on.

This allowed the final indignity of the Ironside number 12, D. Jones following a scrum by charging through the middle to score on the only other Ironside visit into the Penarth 22.

There were no conversions so the final score was Tredegar Ironsides 15 Penarth 0. So were there any bright points?

Well the clear man of the match for Penarth was Gunnerson who absolutely dominated the lines out.

To be fair no one from Penarth can be criticised but games like this one must be won if they are to progress in the divisions.

To do that the work rate has to go up and basic skills have to be worked on so that they get continuity into their attacking game.