LAST Saturday saw a narrow home defeat of 10 points to 13 for the newly promoted Penarth Youth Team to visitors Pontypridd RFC Youth on the opening weekend of the new Blues Youth season at the Athletic Ground.

Having been promoted at the end of last season to the new Blues Youth Premier league the Penarth boys were unlucky not have walked away with an opening win, but with a high penalty count against the home team it was the boot of the Pontypridd outside half which settled the game and a victory by three points.

The Penarth team started with determination and vigour taking the game immediately to the visitors with disruption in the break down area and a strong set piece, which immediately had Pontypridd on the back foot.

It was Penarth who struck first after only 9 minutes on the clock, when an overthrown Pontypridd lineout was pounced on by Penarth's ever present openside flanker Thaine Baker, who stormed towards the Pontypridd line offloading on the 22m line to blindside flanker Tom Fazackerley in close support. The Pontypridd defensive line managed to scramble back to make the tackle, however, from the ensuing ruck Penarth scrum half Gruff Shewring moved the ball quickly, and it was centre Ben Jones who put young first year winger Will Hardy into space for him to score his first try for the youth team and take Penarth into a 5 -0 lead which went un converted.

Play was with the Penarth boys as they continued to attack the Pontypridd line at pace, however, penalties in the break down area against the home team relieved the pressure on the visitors and they were able to clear their lines on several occasions moving themselves back into the Penarth half.

Following another penalty against the Penarth boys, Pontypridd managed to pull 3 points back on 13 minutes to make the score Penarth 5 -Pontypridd 3.

It was the Penarth eight however, that once again dominated play from the kick off with some outstanding offloads in the contact areas, and once again Penarth pushed back into the Pontypridd 22m zone for Pontypridd to infringe when centre Ben Jones took a tap penalty with a clear run to the try line, only to be tackled from a retreating Pontypridd forward who was blatantly offside.

No penalty try was given or even a yellow card, and to rub salt into the wounds the Penalty kick to the posts just floated wide from the boot of outside half Drew Musa.

From the restart 22 drop out, Penarth were once again penalised within the beak down area of the ruck for holding on, and this time the outside half for Pontypridd slotted the resulting penalty through the Penarth posts and take Pontypridd into a 5-6 lead, against the run of play on 26 minutes.

The half time turn around came with the score Penarth RFC Youth 5 points to Pontypridd RFC Youth 6.

Half time gave an opportunity for coaches Simon Rees, Dai Williams and Phil Musa to speak to the boys with expert analysis coming from Huw Wiltshire, who has joined the youth coaching team this year.

All the coaches encouraged the boys to continue with taking the play to the opposition and to try to keep the increasing penalty count down for the second half.

It also gave the coaches an opportunity to bring some of the younger 1st year players onto the pitch after injuries were picked up by fullback Luc Kean-Adams and winger Zacc Fillau.

The second half saw both teams upping the pace and the play moved into the Penarth 22m area where some missed tackles from the home defence gave the opportunity for Pontypridd to score their first try of the match through their number 8. With the conversion landed it took Pontypridd into a 5 -13 point lead.

The breakdown area continued to be a problem area for the Penarth Youth players with an interpretation by the referee which not all agreed with, and the increasing penalty count against the Penarth boys, when in a strong attacking position, continued to relieved the pressure on the visitors.

However, it was Penarth that struck back after 10 minutes of the second half when 1st year youth player Aled Rees, on as a sub at scrum half, stepped inside the Pontypridd defence from a Penarth line out and with a show of strength brushed off his opposite number and stepped the covering defence to score in the corner.

The conversion from Musa again drifted agonisingly past the far post and left the score board showing Penarth 10 -Pontypridd 13.

The last 10 minutes of the game saw Penarth cleverly pinned back into their own half and some tremendous covering tackles from Mike Halligan in the centre, Hardy on the wing and ever present back row of Lloyd, Shore and Leach prevented the visitors from scoring.

Together with some key scrummages won by the front row of Geraint Williams, Tom Griffiths and Yas Ghandour, it managed to keep the Pontypridd pack from crossing the Penarth line again.

A final attack from the Penarth boys saw the ball lost in contact and the Pontypridd outside half kick the ball out for the final whistle to be blown with the score remaining, Penarth RFC Youth 10 Pontypridd RFC Youth 13.

Overall it was a great display from the Penarth team on their very first outing at the top level of the Blues Youth Premier League and a game that they will be able to build on in the forthcoming weeks of the season.