Seasiders triumph in one-sided win (From Penarth Times)

Seasiders triumph in one-sided win

THE SEASIDERS stamped their Division 4 (SE) league leaders" authority on a one-sided Konica-Minolta first round cup-tie against Division 5 (West) Pontyates and ran in seven tries without reply for their biggest win of the season.

But let"s remind ourselves - the Seasiders have won all three of their league games with some style.

Changes have been rung on each occasion, but the fundamental principles of forward dominance supported by adventurous back play have been continued throughout. Until last Saturday, that is.

A cricket score looked altogether likely in the first minute, as first Richard Ball and then Gavin Seymour charged to the line.

A 5-metre scrum followed and the Pontyates front row popped up on cue. However, the penalty was tapped and led to nothing whatsoever and so the pattern of the match was set.

So how did Penarth manage to score seven tries? Basically, because from time to time, someone decided enough was enough and did something about it.

First up (and the usual source of inventive rugby all afternoon) was full-back Chris Reddicliffe, combining with captain Andrew Edwards and scrum-half Chris Mortimer to send loose-head prop Richard Merrett over for his second try of the season.

For a while it began to look as if normal service had been resumed as a short-passing three-quarter move along the visitors" 22 metre line set up Reddicliffe himself to break two tackles to score, but that wasn"t quite how the rest of the game panned out.

Admittedly, Pontyates" resistance was, to say the least, unconventional and perhaps it was this that discomfited the usually rampant Seasiders.

Whatever it was, the result was usually the same - long, painful passages of handling errors and general confusion, followed by a move of startling simplicity leading to another sparkling try.

For example, forward drives created the space for Danny Brookman to put the looping Richard Ball in at the corner after 35 minutes and similar approach work allowed Dai Carter to crash over on the stroke of half time. With the scoreline reading 27-0, there was little prospect of a Pontyates revival in the second half, but this didn"t noticeably improve the home side"s concentration.

An aimless first ten minutes was again abruptly punctuated by a stunning scoreby centre Ross Olney .Cue 15 more minutes of shocking ineptitude, before the returning Lloyd Davey took route one through two tackles and fed the supporting Richard Ball for a straight run to the line through what remained of the defence. The closing score was a clear demonstration of how easy it really could have been as the Penarth eight shoved their opponents clean off their own put-in.

Chris Mortimer delivered the miss-out pass to Andrew Edwards, who slipped it inside for Ross Olney for his fourth try in two games.

Penarth face eighth-placed Dowlais are the visitors to the Athletic Field on Saturday.

Penarth:Reddicliffe, Davey, Olney, Edwards, Stuart-Jones, Brookman, Mortimer, Merrett, K.Blake, Seymour, Fitzgerald, Ball, Hopkins (Payne), Carter (Clare), Bonello (Coslett)

FIXTURE

This Saturday, October 1, Penarth are home to Dowlais in the ASDA Welsh National League Division 4 (South-East) at the Athletic Field, Lavernock Road, ko 2.30pm.