Youth give Crawshays a close game (From Penarth Times)

Youth give Crawshays a close game

Penarth Youth 10pts Crawshays Youth 28pts

THE fine weather held out for Penarth Youth on their big Good Friday clash with Crawshays Welsh Youth side and rugby supporters turned out to line the Athletic Field several deep. But the luck could have stayed with the Seasiders just a little longer as they came so close to a win over their famous visitors.

This annual fixture gives the Crawshays selectors a good chance to look at some promising players from all over South Wales and their squad comprised large, mobile fit young men keen to show their abilities in front of their families and supporters.

The visiting squad took the initiative and two good converted tries came within 10 minutes.

Penarth then began to get the measure of the Crawshays tactics and the try count slowed, but one more heavy charge towards the Seasiders line could not be stopped and the local coaches looked anxious with 21-0 on the board.

At this point the commitment and spirit of the Youth came to the fore and a sheer determination not to be psyched out was evident as a line out in Crawshays half put the ball in Penarth scrum half Jon Wingren's hands, a quick feed to out half Mark Sadler, and an inspired long pass to Nick Gill who drove over for the first Penarth try, unconverted.

The half-time score of 21-5 was relieved only by the conviction that Penarth were coming back and within five minutes of the restart their scrum half Jon Wingren was harassing his opposite number to the point where Jon charged down a desperate clearance kick, caught the ball and was over Crawshays try line before they knew what had happened.

Penarth were now very much in the game and the crowd gave noisy support as Wingren was involved in another near miss when he was held up over the line. This game was a revelation to both sides,

Crawshays were now taken aback by the speed and cohesion of the lighter home side's attacks and Penarth had to pull out every ounce of "dog" and team work to quell the strong visitors.

Blind side flanker Robert Pearce did play a "blinder", tackling relentlessly and with a prodigious work rate - he was unlucky not to score in the second half and he was later presented with the man of the match award by Peter Griffiths, CEO of the Principality Building Society, who sponsored the match.

Penarth threw everything into the attack towards the end of the match to try to snatch a victory and a complicated backs move nearly led to what would have been a stunning try but a slight glitch led to an interception by a keen eyed Crawshays forward and their final converted try put them 28-10 up - a score which they magnanimously agreed flattered them in a game which was fast and a great Good Friday spectacle.

Thanks to the many Penarth business who supported this event which is now a "fixture" marking the end of the season.

The Youth played a last friendly match away to Brynamman last Saturday, winning 37-0 and this weekend they will be on tour to Arras, but although this date has been signalled to the WYRU well in advance, a BY League scheduling glitch means that they risk being ejected from the finals if they cannot complete a North Wales play-off arranged for the same weekend.

A protest is being lodged.