FOLLOWING the disappointment of exiting the Welsh youth cup the previous week, Penarth RFC Youth bounced back last weekend with an emphatic 29-0 away win over Llantrisant RFC Youth.

Playing on probably the wettest pitch so far this year, the Penarth boys had to adapt their game to a very heavy muddy playing surface which was squelching under foot as the boys went through their warm up and gradually got worse as the game progressed.

It was apparent from the start that the much bigger Llantrisant pack were going to keep the ball tight in the conditions and not play a very expansive game, what they didn't bargain for however, was the sheer tenacity and skills of the smaller but more mobile eight from Penarth.

The first ten minutes of the game was all Llantrisant as the pack surged up the pitch to the Penarth 22m line dominating the contact area and it was only due to the well organised defensive lines from the Penarth boys and some superb cover tackles from Penarth number eight Sam Sullivan, hooker Liam Richards and prop Geraint Williams that stopped the Llantrisant eight in their tracks.

With Scrum Half Gruff Shewring clearing from the Penarth line it allowed some breathing space for the Penarth backs to attack and through outside half Aron Arthur and centres Toby Dyer and George Roberts they were able to progress back up the field and start to put pressure on the Llantrisant line. Having won a scrum five metres out from the Llantrisant line, the ball was recycled from a ruck and Penarth number eight Sam Sullivan managed to squeeze himself superbly over the line to open the scoring and give Penarth a 5-0 lead.

From the restart, the Penarth back row of Dan Anderton and Tom Marsh started to make inroads into the bigger Llantrisant pack running the opposition around the pitch, and following a storming run from Marsh ,which saw the openside flanker break free from his 10 metre line inside the Penarth half ,step past the defensive line and then off load the ball to winger Zachary Fillau, which gave the winger a clear run in, to score his first try for the youth. At the turn around at half time the score was Penarth 10 Llantrisant 0

A half time team talk from Penarth coaches Dai Williams and Simon Rees spoke about composure from the players during the second half and the early stages again saw a surge from the bigger Llantrisant pack, however, great defensive play by second rows Matt Rogers and Alex Shore assisted by prop Matt Hocking, rode out the storm and after 10 minutes it was the Penarth boys that struck again with a well worked try to full back Luc Kean-Adams, who scored under the posts. Converted by Gruff Shewring the score moved on to Penarth 17 -Llantrisant 0

From the restart, the Llantrisant team started to struggle to move around the heavy pitch and also started to lose their composure picking up two yellow cards consecutively for indiscipline. The result was that the Penarth boys started to turn the screw with some penetrating runs from Penarth wing Cai Lloyd making huge yardage into the Llantrisant half.

With flanker Tom Marsh leaving the pitch and a re shuffle of positions, it gave an opportunity for wing Mike Halligan to enter the game and within five minutes the ball was worked to the big right wing and he crossed the line to put Penarth 22 - 0 in the lead.

With another yellow card against Llantrisant in the final ten minutes, reducing them again to 14 players, the final say was again with the Penarth boys when a well created overlap saw full back Kean-Adams strike for his second try. With the conversion again made by Shewring it took the final score to Penarth RFC Youth 29 Llantrisant RFC Youth 0.

It was a great bounce back from the boys, who return to league action this weekend when they travel away to Rhiwbina RFC youth .