Mistakes could have cost dearly (From Penarth Times)

Mistakes could have cost dearly

Pontyclun 15

Penarth 25

SECOND-HALF errors turned what should have been an easy win into a close call for Penarth at bottom club Pontyclun.

Fans did not enjoy the second 40 minutes of the contest, in which Pontyclun out-scored Penarth by 12 points to five.

Happily, the three points had been secured by a half -time lead of 20-3 to Penarth.

However, game Pontyclun had not read the script in which they lie down and die, thus a contest that seemed dead and buried after 25 minutes was only secured by a last-minute barging over the line by Penarth prop Richard Merrett.

The park, although heavy under foot, had recovered well since the rain had relented. This allowed both sides to play 15-man rugby and entertain a good crowd with running and passing, as well as the usual January forward fare.

It took Penarth just three minutes to pressure a scrum deep into home territory and for skipper Mike Clair to charge around it to touch down.

Penarth duly set up siege camp in the Pontyclun 22 and, despite Andrew Edwards just failing to ground the ball for the second try, it allowed Mike Clair to run on to a subsequent flip pass to claim the honour instead.

Pontyclun were winning lineout ball through their beanpole number four Kevin Cooke and used this to work upfield, where, despite a sparkling Gavin Seymore interception, they gained a penalty which their out-half Blaidd Jenkins duly converted.

Penarth responded with steady progress deep into the Pontyclun half, which gave the platform for Mike Clair to repeat the dose of taking the flip pass on the move and score his hat trick.

Danny Brookman converted the first try and later added a penalty.

So 25 minutes had been played and the score was Pontyclun 3 Penarth 20.

Game over? Well not quite.

The next half hour around half-time produced some fine stuff: notably Paul Gooding's brave control of the loose ball, some strong tackling from Hemi Taylor and, less expectedly, Scott Pearson, and on the Pontyclun side: some solid point -saving defence by the full back Richard Balman, but there was no further score. This drying up of Penarth points put the heart back into the home camp, and Penarth started to allow little errors to creep into their play.

Wrong options were taken, attacking overlaps were ignored, straightforward passes were spilled and turn-over ball conceded.

From one such turn-over mid way into the second half Pontyclun were able to put the ball through many pairs of hands for a touchdown wide out by Jason Clark. A mere five minutes later, a further mistake was seized on by Jenkins, who galloped through the Penarth midfield to score close in, and then added the conversion.

So with just under 15 minutes remaining, the Penarth lead had been reduced to a nervous five points.

Quite justifiably, the Penarth forwards, who had dominated everything up front except the lineouts, decided once more that allowing the ball to see the light of day was not the clever thing.

There followed a quite phenomenal 40-metre walking maul, followed by a further ten-metre set piece shove. This sort of thing and Richard Ball's increasing security with front of the lineout possession, camped Penarth again in the home 22.

From there, a short Richard Ball burst was supported by bullocking Richard Merrett, who emerged from the heap to claim the game's deciding try.

There was only time left for the final whistle.

In the end, then, the mighty Penarth pack delivered again.

The next contest is at home on Saturday against unbeaten Fairwater. This is a mouth-watering prospect - let's see if Penarth can raise their general game for that one.

Penarth: Lloyd Davey, Scott Pearson, Dafydd Hobbs, Dai Carter, James Crothers, Danny Brookman, Andy Edwards, Mike Clair, James Coslett, Hemi Taylor, Paul Gooding, Richard Ball, Gavin Seymore, Geraint Evans, Richard Merrett. Replacements: Chris Mortimer, Jason Allen.

* Lloyds-TSB Welsh National League Division 4 (South-East)

Saturday, January 22

Penarth v Fairwater

The Athletic Field, Lavernock Road

Kick-off 2.30pm