Uphill task fails to daunt composed Penarth team (From Penarth Times)

Uphill task fails to daunt composed Penarth team

PENARTH have every reason to feel well pleased with themselves and their performance at Llantwit Major last Saturday.

The 15-man rugby that Penarth displayed was as composed and confident as we have seen all season.

Dominance up front was established from the start and this allowed for some straight powerful running at three quarter and incisive breaks from the full back.

Llantwit are an efficient outfit and not to be dismissed lightly, but the interesting initial challenge was their choice of pitch.

Recent rains had left their main pitch waterlogged, so a move was made to an adjacent pitch which had drained for the simple reason that it is on a slope that suited crampons rather than studs.

Penarth were assigned to climbing the hill for the first 40 and didn't let the prospect daunt them.

They just settled to the business of sounding out the opposition pack and having survived a hopeful drop goal attempt, they set up a series of breaks out of defence.

One of these, a Chris Redicliff run, produced an attacking lineout followed by a clean take and a trotting more than rolling maul. Peter Bennett got the touchdown after 15 minutes' play.

The conversion was missed on an afternoon in which the boot played almost no part at all. Missed conversions and penalties and running from defence in preference to the kick were the order of the day.

The scoring then went quiet for a further 20 minutes. Although Penarth climbed up to and then camped on the plateau of the Llantwit 22, the referee found regular and often puzzling fault with their attacking play.

This period denied scores by both Mike Clair and Peter Bennett for failure to ground the ball.

These disappointments didn't disguise the pattern of play or the likely outcome of the game. The set piece and maul were solid.

The returning Paul Gooding was dominating the lineout and his partner Kevin Fitzgerald was tireless around the park, while in the backs, the straight running and devastating hands off of David Jenkins were giving the home defence all sorts of dismay.

So on the half hour, constant Penarth pressure told and the lively Mike Hopkins was able to resist the embrace of ex-Penarth favourite Mark Jones to barge over for his touch down.

The remaining significant incident of the half was a bizarre line out throw by the home side which sailed way beyond both sets of forwards and caused a mid field collision between Andrew Edwards and Danny Brookman as they scrambled for ball on the floor.

The gap created allowed Llantwit their most promising attack, but even this was snuffed out by a determined Dafydd Hobbs tackle and Penarth's very first (and almost last) kick from defence.

So at half-time the visitors held a 10-0 lead.

Downhill, there was no way that Penarth were to be denied. Within five minutes the backs translated defence into blazing attack. David Jenkins made the break, fed a flying James Crothers who flipped a divine little lob over the head of the last line of home resistance, which Redicliff motored on to and crossed the line.

The next 20 minutes saw the replacement of all-action Alun Bonello with Dai Carter and Dafydd Hobbs with Steve Roberts.

Then Penarth put in a trick they hadn't yet tried.

The front row men picked up and drove into the heart of the defence, until the inevitable gap appeared and David Jenkins said thank you very much and claimed the just desserts of his afternoon's work.

Chris Redicliff took over the kicking from Danny Brookman and his kick, though accurate, just didn't have the legs.

At 20-0 the contest was over. There was just time for Geraint Evans to take over Peter Bennett's powerful impact on the game and for Penarth to indulge themselves in freely running and passing in flamboyant sevens style.

However the pack were not content to hand over to the pretty boys stuff and rounded off by shoving the home side clean off their own scrum ball.

Swift release set up a darting score under the posts by Steve Roberts that allowed Redicliff to buck the trend and put in the only successful kick of the day,

The final score was significant in Division 4 South East, where leaders Taffs Well slipped up at Bedlinog. There are currently four teams at the top of the division on 18 points and Penarth is one of them.

Penarth; Chris Redicliff; Dafydd Hobbs (Steve Roberts); David Jenkins; Andrew Edwards; James Crothers; Danny Brookman; Chris Mortimer; Mike Clair; Alun Bonello (Dai Carter); Mike Hopkins; Paul Gooding; Kevin Fitzgerald; Dai Morgan; Peter Bennett (Geraint Evans); Richard Merrett.