Fixture

Last Saturday Old Penarthians visited Trelai Park in Cardiff to play Caerau Ely in their latest WRU Division 3 East Central (B) league fixture.  The two teams occupied fourth and fifth positions in the league prior to kick off but after a thrilling 24-15 victory Old Pens moved above their opponents with 54 league points from 18 games played.

Coach Anthony Davies considers that there is a realistic opportunity to improve this position with the top three clubs all playing against each other in the last month of the season

The match was a clash of two very different playing philosophies with Old Penarthians intent to play through the threequarters whilst Caerau were determined to keep the ball as close to the forwards as possible.

This led to an intriguing and very exciting contest.  It was fearlessly competitive with no quarter given that left the watching spectators in no doubt that both sides were determined to win.

Old Penarthians had the upper-hand initially with attacking situations created by Chris Poole, Nathan Smith and James Roach.  Caerau then produced forward drives that advanced 50m upfield and only resolute defensive work by the whole Old Pens team kept the scoresheet level.

After 12 minutes Adan Cole picked up from a scrum on the Penarthians 22m line and drove forward.  He passed to scrum half Tomos Hillman who moved the ball on to Smith.  He kicked up to the opposition 22 where the Caerau full back was under pressure from Poole. At the break down Caerau were penalised and Jon Crimp stepped up to kick the three points from 40m.

The ensuing kick off went straight into touch resulting in a scrum on half way. Cole again broke forward and found Poole in support who was flattened by a ‘no arms’ tackle.  The penalty that was awarded was missed from 45m

Penarthians continued the pressure and whilst the front row of Luke Crockett, Sam Hall and Tom Sidford were under pressure at scrum time Cole was still able to make ground. On one such occasion he broke to the blind side and in the tackle Caerau knocked the ball forward.

Louis Chandler fly hacked at the loose ball which hit an opposition player and rebounded back into his arms.  He caught the ball and, in the tackle, passed to winger Matt Sutton who ran in to score under the posts.  Crimp kicked the conversion for a 10-0 lead

Caerau were not to be over powered however and for the remaining 15 minutes of the half they dominated possession through the forwards. Initially they were awarded a penalty when Sidford was unable to roll away from a tackle and Mike Hurley kicked three points.  Then from another penalty infringement Caerau opted for a scrum on the 5m line.  They forward drive was resisted but the ball was still with Caerau two short passes saw Dwayne Isles cross for a try converted by Hurley.

This brought the half to an end with the scores level at 10-10.  At the interval Andy Hillbourne replaced Roach and from the kick off he had an immediate effect, catching the ball and driving forward to gain 15m.

After five minutes a line out throw from Joel deClaire was caught at full stretch by Josh Allcock and a planned move turned possession into a driving maul that advanced 15m before it was illegally stopped by the Caerau no 8 who was subsequently yellow carded.

Caerau were penalised again soon after and this time Hillman took a quick tap penalty on the left touchline. Smith made a break and found Crimp in support.  He passed to Poole at pace who broke tackles to find Cole on his inside shoulder.  Cole advanced into the opposition 22 where he was tackled but he found time to free his arms and offload to the fast advancing Hillman. He was tackled short of the line but stretched out to score under the posts.  Crimp converted and Old Pens led 17-10

Caerau continued to attack but were now making mistakes and from a knock-on inside the Old Pens half the ball bounced forward into the arms of Poole who broke the initial tackles and then beat the cover defence to score his 10^th try of the season.  Crimp converted and Penarthians led by 14 points

In the closing minutes Caerau struck back with a try from Nathan Kampf.  The conversion was missed so the final score was a deserved 24-15 in favour of the visitors.

This Saturday Old Penarthians are scheduled to play Glyncoch at Cwrt-y-vil but in recent weeks the Rhondda Valley team have been experiencing difficulties in raising a team so please contact the club to find out if the match is to be played.