Entertaining win at the Athletic field (From Penarth Times)

Entertaining win at the Athletic field

Not a bad day at the office then, if the old adage holds true that a side playing below its potential yet winning comfortably is a potentially very good side then the management and players of Penarth RFC can take great satisfaction from last Saturday's efforts at the Athletic Field.

Satisfaction also for the faithful and the travelling support for St Joseph's who got full value for their Saturday entertainment. Because despite their being only one side in it from the start this was not a one sided affair and St Joseph's battled on for the full allotted time. Indeed this included a period in the last quarter when Penarth obviously expected St Joseph's to do the decent thing and roll over but far from it, they laid siege to the Penarth line.

More of that later. Penarth are starting to look like a very tasty outfit. In pretty challenging conditions, damp and soggy with a cold wind whipping down the park from East to West, Penarth put together all the rugby skills.

They now possess a strong and mobile front eight, reliable half backs, gritty defence and enough speed out wide to discourage any relaxation from the opposition. What impressed your correspondent most on Saturday was the variety and continuity of the play that Penarth put together. Clean line out is followed by surging drives followed by swift delivery along the back division. Powerful scrummaging is followed by quick pick up and charge from the back row followed by surging support to pick up and drive on again.

In the half backs there is the steady mix of pass, probe the gap or half gap and chip and chase. Despite sticking at the task St Joseph's just couldn't cope and spent nearly the whole match on the back foot.

So why then were Penarth below their potential? Well it may have been the cold but far too often exhilarating passages of play broke down at critical junctures with dropped passes. Additionally if less significantly Marcus Blackburn was a bit less than his own impeccable standards with the place kicks. Had those things gone right then Penarth would have handed out a 50 point plus drubbing.

That said, Penarth never looked like losing. Not only did they score four good tries but their defence never looked like conceding a score.

The business of the day commenced with St Joseph's taking wind advantage. The early play was devoted to mutual sizing up. St Joseph's possessed a tight head who wore more bandaging than the bionic man but this didn't indicate power potential and Penarth proceeded to boss the set pieces. This produced two things, lots of ball which was used entertainingly but to no early avail and more dramatically an offer by St Joes to try a bit of pugilism for the sake of variety. They were no more successful at this than at the more regulation stuff. They did though discover that our man in the middle, Mr Robert Mota of Cardiff, was more fond of the extended chat than he was of the yellow card.

After 15 minutes of this Penarth dominance brought the first real scoring opportunity.

Penarth had ripped St Joes ball from their line out, crossed the gain line at the charge and fed the ball to Mark Jones bullocking down the middle. He was felled by a high tackle but into the teeth of the wind Marcus Blackburn kicked dead straight but the ball did not just hold, it blew back.

This was straight away followed by a sequence of penalties 10 metres out at which Penarth's dominance was such that they elected to scrummage. Each St Joes collapse was followed by a further scrum election until skipper Mike Clare called time with a pick up and drive to clear the way for the lively Ben Morris to touch down. Penarth 5 St Joes 0. Five minutes later from further scrum dominance Marcus Blackburn intelligently varied with a chip ahead. Brendan Bush was alert to the chance to harass which lead to illegal defence, a further Mr Mota lecture and a Marcus Blackburn penalty.

St Joseph's were still trying and in the next 15 minutes we saw not only more excellent Penarth attacks but some devastating tackling with one outstanding effort by Mark Jones which dissuaded St Joes from taking the route down the middle for the remainder of the proceedings.

The Penarth back row were rampant by now with classic Dai Carter dashes downfield, Alun Bonello securing a ludicrous degree of possession and Mike Clare, my man of the match, charging from pick up at the breakdown. On one of these Mike found himself clear through and delicately chipped the full back only for Brendan Bush to lose the chase by a whisker.

The lights came on at half time and the Penarth back row combined again. The ball released to the backs travelled out swiftly including a judicious Mark Jones duck as the pass flew over and out to Joe Sage on the wing and Jeremy Griffith support lead to a deserved Penarth threequarter score.

By now Penarth with the wind are working comfortably. Stuart Gunnerson is taking the lines out and the front five are shoving St Joes off their own ball. This stranglehold lead to Penarth taking up residence in the St Joseph's 22 and inevitably the strength of Mike Clare giving him his second of the afternoon. Penarth 18, St Joseph's 0.

Penarth rang the changes with three replacements. Richard Merret and Paul Gooding for Brent Muggeridge and Stuart Gunnerson in the pack and Geraint Black for Jeremy Griffiths behind. These changes took time to settle and to St Joes credit they lifted their game at the death to threaten the Penarth line.

Our referee assisted this process by deciding to award every decision against Penarth. However normal service was to be resumed and skipper Clare was again in at the end of a Dai Carter break to end proceedings at Penarth 23, St Joseph's 0.

Further satisfaction can be gained from the news of two signings. Strong tight head Malcolm Penberthy who was prominent in the tight has joined and this will give Penarth's veterans some relief. Also loan player Marcus Blackburn has committed to the club giving much needed reliability at outside half. Things are looking good at the Athletic Field.