Penarth RFC Youth clinch the Blues BE league title

Played at Llanishen Park on a rare dry Saturday, the Penarth boys worked hard to get the better of their strong opponents with some a great defensive display and some fine attacking play which saw them score four tries against the Cardiff team.

It was a great start by the Penarth boys when after only 7 minutes on the clock, a smart move off a set lineout saw the ball move to the blind side from hooker Tom Griffiths to see No 8 Sam Sullivan smash his way over from 8 meters out to open up the scoring for his team.

It was a great start to the game and only 4 minutes later, the Penarth boys struck again, after taking an early dominance in the set scrum, when the ball was moved by scrum-half Gruff Shewring to outside-half Aron Arthur who weaved his way through the Llanishen defence to score the second try for the Penarth team in the corner and extend the Penarth lead to 0-10.

Early dominance of the set piece was counteracted by some sharp movement by the Llanishen backs and the Penarth defence had to be on their toes when good movement by Llanishen put pressure on the Penarth team with some last-ditch tackles preventing an early score for the home team.

Through some great runs from centres Rhys Beynon and George Roberts the Penarth boys worked their way up the pitch back into the Llanishen half and following an infringement by the home team, Shewring placed a nice kick onto the Llanishen 5 metre line.

With a great catch in the lineout by second row Alex Shore the power of props Geraint Williams and Josh James drove the Llanishen pack backwards in a controlled driving maul and it was Sullivan at the back of the maul that dropped over the line to score his second try and take Penarth youth into a 17-0 lead after 21 minutes.

Llanishen were not going to lie down though, and from the restart started to up the pace of their game and show more aggression in the breakdown area, and despite some great defence by Penarth back row Rhys Jones in the break down, the Llanishen boys pushed hard to score a try and pull the score back to 17-7 after 26 minutes.

With a good talking to by captain Roberts behind the posts, the Penarth boys realised that they could not relax against a talented Llanishen team and from the restart, which was chased down by ever present second row Will Parsons, the ball was spun wide to full back Luc Kean-Adams who made great progress up the pitch and into the Llanishen 22m area.

With quick recycled ball it was outside half Arthur who again stepped through the Llanishen defence and score under the posts. With a conversion by Shewring it ended the half with Penarth leading 24-7.

Despite half-time encouragement to the team from coaches Simon Rees and Dai Williams to tidy up the breakdown area and support players with the ball, it was Llanishen who struck 4 minutes into the second half when good movement from the Llanishen outside half saw their centre break through the Penarth back line and score to make the score 12-24 to Penarth.

It was at this point that the Penarth team seemed to realise that they were not going to coast the second half and the Penarth boys started to dig in and dominate the possession and territory with the game being played mostly in the Llanishen half.

With good runs from wings Matt Frost and Mike Halligan and some crunching tackles coming in from flankers Hugh Leach and Thaine Baker which stopped several runs from the big Llanishen pack.

Penarth continued to push into the Llanishen 22m and put pressure on the home team, which saw several attacks by Penarth boys thwarted by last minute tackles by the home defence.

In the last quarter of the game, the pressure continued and Penarth were unlucky not to add to their half-time lead, however, the score remained at 12-24 at the final whistle and the Penarth boys had done enough to pick up the victory and the bonus point to take victory and the league title.