PENARTH 8

TREORCHY 33

FOR THE first 50 minutes of this dreary encounter with undefeated Treorchy, it looked as if it was only a matter of time before the Seasiders stopped making unforced errors and started to run in a few tries. You needed to have been there, I suppose.

The game started with both sides circling round each other warily, driving a little and kicking a lot. Penarth kept trying things and messing it up with silly errors, while Treorchy had only one response to gaining possession and that was the crash ball. Like rugby league without the subtlety.

Thankfully it was the Seasiders who finally broke the deadlock as Chris Roberts thumped home a 45 metre penalty at the end of the first quarter.

Would the excitement ever end? To be fair, the referee was taking a close interest in every breakdown and whistling without fail every time the ball-carrier hit the deck.

Penarth were demonstrably the better side, but the error-count was still way too high when they were bizarrely penalised for a crooked feed and the visitors set off upfield. For once they stuck to the pick-up-and-drive and this yielded immediate results as the ball was worked wide in the Seasiders'

22 and scrum-half Gareth Fear went over in the corner No reason to worry with half-time approaching. Treorchy were one-dimensional and ineffective, relying on errors from the hosts for possession. However, a game of rugby can turn on single incident and so it proved on this occasion.

First Paul Gooding received yellow for a seemingly innocuous challenge for a 50-50 ball, but as Treorchy set up a maul, Geraint Blake was astonished to find the referee waving a red card in his face.

Turning around 3-5 in arrears Penarth had a few things to ponder, like how to get their hands on some decent ball with the line-out malfunctioning badly. In fact, the absence of possession wasn't about to improve as Treorchy rapidly took the game by the scruff of the neck. The usual determined last-ditch defence finally cracked as number 8 Jamie Summers went over and minutes later scrum-half Fear added his second with the usual direct approach.

He was even looking for his hat-trick as a rare Seasiders assault broke down at the Treorchy line, but his 90 metre touchline dash was dramatically terminated by Steve Roberts. However, with all the pressure was still coming from the visitors, the fourth try wasn't long in coming and this time outside-half Lee Stone even deviated from Plan A with a neat grubber which beat everyone as centre Tristan Lazarus followed up to score.

Treorchy's fifth and final try came by means of the tried-and-trusted method with seven minutes to go as lock Rhodri Jones crashed through, but Penarth finally showed how easy it should have been all along with the try of the game as consolation.

Coming out of their own half with simple short passes along the line, they gave Steve Roberts a bit of space on the right. The pacey winger needed no second bidding and headed for the corner. As he was halted short of the line, the ball was worked rapidly left where James Docherty, lacking the pace to beat the cover, nevertheless released out of the tackle for Chris Roberts to cross in the corner.

Taking a short rest from league action, the Seasiders welcome Division 5 SE St.Albans to the Athletic Field on Saturday in the second round of the Swalec Cup, kick-off 2.30pm.

PENARTH: Chris Roberts, Steve Roberts, Liam Bevan, Gareth Sullivan, Huw Tookey, Rhys Lakin, Owain George (Chris Mortimer), Richard Merrett, Geraint Evans, James Thorpe (David Morgan), Andrew Hillbourne (Jason Allen), Paul Gooding, Darryl Howden, Elliott Smith, Geraint Blake.