Penarth RFC 0

Pontypool United 26

WITH Penarth RFC’s home fixture against St Peters being postponed due to the Rocks’ visit to Nant Conwy in the quarter-finals of the Swalec Plate (they lost 21 - 5), a friendly was arranged against Division 2 (E) Pontypool United.

It’s been many years since the two clubs met, as the present district-based league structure effectively prevents it. The visitors are currently second in their division and looking a good bet for promotion, while the Penarth 'Seasiders' started the game in sixth place in theirs.

The opening phases were mainly dominated by United, but the Seasiders’ defence held firm and didn’t miss a tackle until the 14th minute when the Pontypool left wing zig-zagged extravagantly through the Penarth 22 and under the posts.

There was no further score for 35 minutes.

Not for want of trying, as Anthony Pine received a pass on his own 22 with limited options. The lock nevertheless took the opposition on, passing in the tackle to Huw Elias who ran it up the tramlines over half-way before handing over to Scott Mackie who fed Dan Seal. Illegally tackled, the United was binned.

No points were gained from the attacking lineout and the same resulted from a serious Tom Luck foray into the visitors 22 minutes later. The Seasiders dominated the remainder of the half with waves of attacks, with Elias coming close to breaking the deadlock.

The second half brought a number of personnel changes and Penarth continued their search for the equalising score until the 50th minute when a United clearance was missed and they broke out. They had numbers on the right touchline and the ball was worked to the right wing who gave his opposite number the slip and ran in a try from 50 metres.

It’s amazing how quickly you can lose a game you’ve been competitive in and the Seasiders suffered another familiar collapse as Pontypool put the game to bed with a rapid-fire brace of tries.

First their replacement number eight burst clear down the middle with the acceleration of a centre threequarter and fed his outside centre who crossed in the corner, their number five lock showed an even more puzzling turn of speed and it was the speedy number eight himself who raced clear to score the fourth.

As they usually do, Penarth controlled the last quarter, but still couldn’t turn possession and territory into consolation points.

In the final move of the game, United finally laid hands on a ball they hadn’t seen much of for 20 minutes and the number five was off again, felled only by a tremendous unattributed ankle-tap.

Obviously this was a disappointing result from such and evenly-contested friendly, but it was an excellent run-out against serious opposition for several young players who aren’t yet first team regulars such as Mitch Hickey, Harrison Pugsley and Ollie Shaw.

The Seasiders dropped a place to seventh as Gilfach Goch edged past with a win against Clwb Rygbi Cymry Caerdydd. The next league fixture will be a week on Saturday, March 4, away at Llantrisant, kick-off at 2.30pm.

Penarth: Huw Elias (Ollie Shaw), James Docherty, Tom Luck (C), Chris Mortimer, James Crothers (Tom Smith), Mitch Hickey, Owen Rees (Gareth Mathias), Sean O’Sullivan, Mason Good, Alan Doyle, Dan Seal, Anthony Pine, Matt Allen, Alex Thau, Scott Mackie (Harrison Pugsley)

National League Division 2 (East Central)

P W D L F A Pts

1 Dinas Powys 15 12 0 3 448 217 60

2 Llantrisant 15 12 0 3 417 255 57

3 St Peters 15 11 0 4 388 228 50

4 Aberdare 15 8 1 6 352 274 43

5 Barry 15 8 0 7 318 273 39

6 Gilfach Goch 16 6 0 10 301 298 34

7 PENARTH 15 7 1 7 273 346 33

8 Pontyclun 15 5 1 9 246 352 28

9 Llanishen 13 5 1 7 232 288 26

10 Abercynon 14 4 1 9 223 323 25

11 CRC Caerdydd 15 4 1 10 311 419 22

12 Old Illtydians 15 4 0 11 225 392 22