Penarth 30 Porth Quins 17

AFTER promising but ultimately failing against top end of the table St Peters last week this time Penarth delivered.

Porth Quins are riding high in the league and must have fancied their chances. However they faced a Penarth side with a game plan which was executed ruthlessly for the full 80 minutes.

Even when they were behind on the score sheet Penarth never looked like losing. They will be delighted with their richly deserved winning bonus point.

Conditions were ideally dry and sunny, only the stiff breeze down the pitch would affect play. Penarth started into this breeze and immediately increased their problems by being slow to cover a two man overlap. This left the Quins wing, Dale Hughes with an unopposed stroll into goal. Thankfully that was the last present handed out to the visitors.

The forwards steadied the ship, settling for a period of pick and drive and three dominant set scrums to work themselves the length of the pitch. The culmination was a five metre scrum from which powerful second row Richard Howell took a peek at the open side, dismissed it as too crowded and rolled round and over through a blind side gap.

So after 20 minutes honours were even at five points each.

The Quins then showed they had a trick or two up their sleeves. An attacking line out was thrown short and a sharp dash from the front pulled open a gap in the defensive line which was exploited expertly by their second row.

Penarth once more found themselves five points adrift and under some pressure from a reinvigorated Quins who looked like pinching another, had their centre Hitchins not been hauled down by Gareth Mathias heroically tackling back.

Irrespective of this pressure Penarth never lost composure or their shape. The visitors were keeping ball in hand, switching fluently to and fro across the width of the park but critically were making no ground at all despite being well inside the home 22 metres.

At 40 minutes with the wind on their backs produced just a five point advantage.

Throughout the first half the Penarth front eight were increasingly dominant, mauling well and regularly pushing the opposition off their own ball. So it was almost inevitable that the restart was marked by dynamic young prop Alan Doyle bouncing off opponents, charging down the middle and slipping to Mathias who was only stopped by a high tackle which produced a three point penalty.

James Docherty followed his penalty with a clear declaration of intent. Any ball fed to him was treated to a wind assisted boot and significant territory gained.

The effect of this was enhanced by aggressive following up particularly and regularly by flanker Adan Cole. The Quins must have been heartily sick of seeing him charging into any efforts they made at defensive clearance.

So it was from two deft Docherty chips and chases that Richard Howells got his and Penarth’s second try again smoothly rolling off the back of the set piece.

Penarth’s third try came only five minutes later and was straight off the training park. Cole stole the opposition loose ball and gained a scrum, the Quins pack was shoved back, and Docherty put in a pin point touch kick, Penarth stole again and opted to start the rolling maul from nearly 30 metres. From the resulting set piece Mike Clare showed that he too could peel off and score from short range.

Quins were not going to give up. They declined an easy three points in front of the posts and full back Waughington came onto the tap penalty at an unstoppable pace and angle, reducing the Penarth lead to six points.

Penarth could have become nervous at this stage, but quite the opposite. Their restart kick was fumbled allowing them to maul yet again and a repeat Mike Clare try from close in. This score was hugely significant not only re-establishing a winning margin but earning the bonus point that could be essential to second division survival.

Tempers began to fray a bit at this stage and the crowd was treated to a rare phenomenon. Both captains were given a general warning by referee Steve Harwood and asked to talk to their players. When a further fracas broke out they were both yellow carded although nowhere near the incident.

Fresh legs in the form of Alex Thau and Chris Mortimer for Doyle and Mathias respectively were brought on but there was no change to the home team stranglehold on territory. No further points resulted but the job had been done.

Next Saturday the last match of the season is away at top-of-the-table Brecon. On this form Penarth will offer a real challenge and hopefully do enough to stay clear of relegation.

Penarth;- Jerome Bryan; Sean O’Sullivan; Alan Doyle (Alex Thau); Richard Howells; James Beaton; Scott Mackie; Adan Cole; Mike Clare; Gareth Mathias (Chris Mortimer); James Docherty; James Crothers; Tom Luck; Ben Donovan; Nathan Palmer and Rhys Morgan.