Saturday 24th January 2026
Old Penarthians 15 Glyncoch 10
Thanks to the work undertaken by team managers Jon Lewis and Max Simmons, a very wet pitch at Cwrt-y-vil was playable by kick off time last weekend and their efforts were rewarded when Old Penarthians Division 5 East Central league encounter with Glyncoch resulted in a 15 points to ten victory to the home team.
It was a hard fought match in every sense of the words with very slippery conditions under foot and a biting cold wind accompanying the squally showers, but both sides remained competitive under the control of the referee who assessed that the pitch was acceptable for the game to be played.
It was a much-needed positive outcome for the Old Pens as the four league points earned lifted them out of the relegation places above Llandrindod Wells (defeated at Cefn Coed) and Treherbert (who did not play).
The game started positively for Old Pens with a Glyncoch kick off well taken by James Reynolds who carried hard into the opposition and passed to Rhys Stout who ran through the initial defence. A home team penalty resulted but the kick to touch was missed by Ollie Moir who misjudged the strength of the wind that he was facing.
On 20 minutes good defensive work by the forwards turned the ball over at a ruck and Cae Williams received a pass which he handed on to Ieuan Harris. Harris found Stout in support and when he was illegally challenged on the floor Moir this time found an excellent touch 15m from the Glyncoch tryline.
The line out throw from Ellis Halliday was caught by Will Davis, a combination that worked well throughout the match despite the windy conditions, and the forwards created a maul. Captain Jo Francis-Oaten spun off and carried forward into space. The ruck formed quickly and Ethan Galsworthy passed to fellow half back Moir who moved it on to Jon Crimp with Harris on his shoulder cutting a diagonal line through the defence to score an impressive team try. The conversion from Moir was good and Penarthians led 7-0.
Penarthians continued to play attacking rugby and the handling was generally good putting Glyncoch under pressure and from one attack the visitors cleared out Tyler Carter from the wrong side of the ruck and a penalty was awarded 25m from posts. Moir stepped up and after a delay when the touch judges could not agree that the ball had crossed between the uprights, and Jon Lewis nearly lost all the credits he had earned from his work on the pitch, the referee awarded the three points.
Glyncoch then ended the half strongly gaining the upper hand at the scrums which initially had been even with the front row of Halliday, Liam O’Brian and Nathan Harris more than holding their own against the bigger Glyncoch pack. However defensive work led by Francis-Oaten, Charlie Wheatley and Reynolds held out the attacks and the referee blew the half time whistle with Old Pens leading 10-0.
An injury to Nathan Harris saw Liam Brooks introduced into the front row at half time and not long afterwards Josh Alcock and debutant Keiran Davies replaced O’Brian and Carter. Now playing with the wind at their backs it may have been expected that the Old Pens would dominate the territory with kicks into the opposition half but the supply of good possession dried up under more powerful forward work by Glyncoch and the play was centred within the Old Pens half for much of the second period. In fact, pressure at scrum time saw Halliday yellow-carded for repeatedly not engaging when the scrum was due to set.
The repeated Glyncoch scrummaging then paid the dividend of a pushover try for the number 8, but the conversion was unsuccessful and on 25 mins the score was 10-5. The play restarted with Old Pens putting themselves under more pressure when the kick did not travel the required 10m and at the next break in play a not very common substitution saw dad Richie Moir replace son Ollie with the vocal Crimp moving into the outside half role.
The moment when the game was won came on 35 minutes when the ball from a scrum under pressure just inside their own half was picked up by scrum-half Galsworthy who somehow avoided the Glyncoch flanker’s initial tackle before slipping under three further attempted tackles to score a try, much to the delight of his teammates and the chilled spectators. The conversion by Crimp was unsuccessful.
Glyncoch were however not finished and they continued to press for more points which their forwards again delivered with a try in the corner with the last play of the match. The conversion was missed but the visitors earned a bonus point in defeat for being within 7 points of the winners who for first time in 2026 were Old Penarthians.
Next Saturday Old Penarthians again play at home, against bottom of the table Treherbert, hoping to overturn the result of the fixture earlier in the season which had seen Old Pens lose 12-7. Kick off is scheduled for 2.30pm.