OLD Penarthians lost their first game of the season on Saturday, September 26, away to Cowbridge in the SWALEC sponsored WRU Bowl competition. The players had travelled to the game in a good frame of mind following three straight wins at the start of their league programme. It was also an opportunity to test their new strengths against a team that had only narrowly defeated them twice in the league campaign in 2014/15.

It was however to be the failings of last season that were to return rather than the adventurous start to this year that has seen the side score 11 tries so far.

Admittedly the team was subject to many changes following the withdrawals of key players due to injury, illness and other less obvious reasons. Those players that stepped up tried their hardest but there was a lack of cohesion in the team and understanding of the game plan that contributed to a 50 points to 12 defeat.

If the current season is to overcome what is hoped to be only a small set-back, the players will have to support captain Lloyd Davey and coaches Simon Hurley and Anthony Davies, committing themselves to play every Saturday and train together regularly.

Old Penarthians started the match well and from a Jon Crimp kick off, Alex Cook chased the ball and knocked it back to the supporting forwards who advanced into the Cowbridge 22 with drives from Dale Norris, Jack Margetson and Stuart Gunnarsson. The effort however came to nothing and the Cowbridge team, who had only one league victory to their credit, cleared their lines.

It did not take long for Cowbridge to pressurise the Old Pens and after seven minutes centre Ash Thomas broke through some ineffective tackling to score a try that he also converted. This scenario was repeated several more times during the half and within 31 minutes Cowbridge had scored four more tries through Richard Howson, Lloyd Stock, Rhys Allen and Alan Glaser with three conversions from Thomas to effectively seal the result.

Penarthians did however score next with probably the best worked try of the afternoon. It started with a line out throw on the right touchline when Reggie Blake found Joel deClaire. He passed off the top of the line to Gareth Clancy who moved the ball quickly to Crimp. He distributed to Mark Sadler who gave a short pass to Tim Naylor. Naylor burst through a tackle to pass to Lloyd Davey who committed the last defender before giving an inside pass to Charlie Gore, in off his opposite wing, for a fine try. Crimp converted to make the score 33-7.

Any thoughts of a surprise come-back were however dashed in injury time when Huw Lougher scored another try for Cowbridge which Thomas converted for a half-time lead of 40 points to seven.

The second half could be considered something of a revival for the Old Pens as they only conceded two tries and scored one of their own, through another taken line out by deClaire, but it overshadowed what was a disappointing performance and result.

Some of the smiles returned to the faces of the players and club members later in the evening when witnessing the underdog Wales win over confident England in the Rugby World Cup and the roar of relief and enthusiasm in the clubhouse at the end of the game nearly took the new roof off the building.

Some of that tenacity evident in the Welsh team is now needed in the Old Penarthians 1st XV as they return to league action on Saturday, October 3, at home to Whitchurch who also lost their SWALEC Bowl fixture. The seconds will hope that their opponents Llandaff will be able to raise a side for their away fixture, unlike last week’s opposition, Pontyclun who withdrew during the week due to lack of numbers. Both games are scheduled to start at 2.30pm.