Fixture

Old Penarthians v Tongwynlais Match Report

Saturday 16th January 2016

The Old Penarthians 1st XV played their first Division 3 East Central (C) league fixture of 2016 against Tongwynlais last Saturday and in a bruising encounter on a very heavy pitch came away with a bonus point win by 29 points to nil.

Other than the first ten minutes of the game and perhaps the last ten this was not the team’s best performance but against dogged opposition it was a win that maintains the club at the top of the table with 47 league points from eleven matches.  Their closest rivals who have both played ten games (at the time of writing) are Cardiff Saracens and Hirwaun with 39 and 34 points respectively.

After a second well-attended training session at Cardiff Arms Park the coaches would have been pleased with the result and especially satisfied that for the fourth league fixture in a row the team has not conceded a point to their opponents.

This defensive effort was needed at times last Saturday but the first ten minutes was all out attack with the players committed to scoring early points and establishing their authority.  And this they did when after seven minutes a penalty award that would normally be kicked to touch was taken short by Jon Crimp to Gareth Clancy.

Clancy passed to Tom Sidford who put Lloyd Davey into space to release Simon Davies.  Davies was brought down short of the left hand touchline but the ball was recycled to Rhys Lakin in mid-field.  The forwards were in support and after a couple of phases of play Joel DeClaire fed Lakin who managed to put captain Davey in at the corner.  Crimp converted for a seven point lead.

Four minutes later an opposition lineout was stolen by Geraint Blake and the backs all handled the ball to release Davies on the opposite side of the pitch.  As he was covered he passed back inside to Chad Wilson and after a series of forward drives towards the posts from Gary Bishop and Sam Hall, Tim Naylor crashed over the line to score an unconverted try.

At this point the visiting spectators were considering a rout but it was not to be and despite scrummaging well, the line out was again not functioning efficiently and good possession was at a premium.  This meant no further scoring took place in the half and the half time score was 12 – 0.

Unfortunately the second half started where the first half left off with little tryline action and too many mistakes.  It took until 20 minutes into the half for any real action and that was unfortunately the result of foul player that saw Old Penarthians reduced to fourteen players with a yellow card for Tom Sidford followed by a red card for a Tongwynlais prop.

The number reduction seemed to galvanise the Old Penarthians and with a little more space they were able to exert pressure.  Unfortunately for Mark Sadler, on as a substitute for Davey, the space could not be fully exploited when he was tripped up by the muddy pitch when only five metres from the line.  From the ensuing scrum however the Old Penarthians forwards drove Tongwynlais back and Clancy was able to run across the pitch before giving a pass to Crimp to score a try, which he also converted.

When restored to a full pack the advantage at the scrum again told and after 30 minutes the ball was driven over the tryline for Clancy to score.  This was to be Clancy’s last action at scrum half as Davies was switched to his favoured position and with three minutes remaining he passed to the blindside from a ruck to put substitute Chris Cobbold in at the corner for the final score of the game and a 29 - 0 win to Old Penarthians.

The second Xv played at home to an Old Illtydians second team playing their first game of the season.  Unfortunately the mix of young players and experience in the visitors team was too much for the Old Pens and the final score of 53 – 12 reflected the difference in the sides.  The team played with spirit throughout and this was exemplified by Mark ‘Crevvie’ Curtis who swept all before him as he crashed over from an advancing forward drive to score his first try since the last century.

Old Penarthians first XV host Hirwaun RFC at Cwrt y Vil on Saturday 30th whilst the second XV will travel to Rhiwbina in a CADRU league fixture with a scheduled kick off for both games 2.30pm.