Fixture

Old Penarthians v Cathays Match Report

Saturday 27th February 2016

Following a night of success for the Wales team against France last Friday night Old Penarthians 1st XV were looking for a similar well organised victory against league strugglers Cathays and so it was to prove as the home team ran out winners by 74 points to 0.  The result keeps the team at the top of Division 3 East Central (C) and sets up a mouth-watering fixture against second placed Cardiff Saracens next weekend.

The team that started the match against Cathays showed a few changes from that which beat Llanrumney the week before and shows something of the strength in depth in the squad and the faith that the coaches are showing in the players after all their hard work at recent training sessions at Cardiff Arms Park.

With a stiff wind at their backs Old Penarthians did not take long to exert their dominance when after 4 minutes driving play by Tom Sidford, Joel deClaire and Sam Hall saw two long passes reach Simon Davies who crossed for an unconverted try.

Three minutes later more good play from the forwards including Matt Allen and Gary Bishop saw a maul develop in front of the opposition posts and to the surprise of many Mark Sadler appeared from the melee with the ball to cross for a try which Chad Wilson converted.

Sadler was to feature again in the next try when he broke free on the left hand touchline to pass inside to Tim Naylor.  Naylor made more ground before giving the final pass to supporting flanker Chris Cobbold to score.  Wilson converted.

It was soon 26-0 when forwards and backs combined to let Lloyd Davey break from inside his own half.  He made good yards and should have passed to winger Davies for a classic try.  Unfortunately Davey retained possession and stepped inside only to be tackled.  He was lucky enough to find Fearghas Gough in support who took the pass to score for Wilson to convert.

Wilson then added a try to his tally from a five metre scrum when he attacked from a set move in-field from his wing position.  This was followed by a try from a quick penalty taken by Gareth Clancy. He passed to Davey and after a move which featured Sadler and Cobbold a return pass to Sadler gave him his second try.  A second try by Wilson that was unconverted gave a half time score of 45 – 0.

The beginning of the second half was not as productive with too many errors creeping into the play as the players tried to overcomplicate the moves.  Cathays to their credit were also more competitive until an injury to one of their players left their depleted squad to complete the match with 14 players.

Penarthians did however score points after 17 minutes when substitute Charles Gore received the ball just inside his own half and burst through a first tackle to run the 50m for a touchdown under the posts.  Wilson converted.  Old Penarthians then evened the numbers by having Cobbold sin-binned but it did not stop the scoring with Sidford, Rob Rees and Lloyd Davey (2) adding tries.  This was Rees' first try in Senior Rugby.

Davey’s tries coming after colleagues Sadler and Richie Dighton would have found it easier to score themselves but in separate incidents both fell over their own feet for Davey to be the beneficiary.  Wilson converted one for a match total of 24 points with deClaire hitting the upright with his conversion attempt.

This was a dominant performance by a confident team and it is hoped that the cohesion is evident in the important fixture next week.

On the adjoining pitch the second XV entertained a touring French team from the University of Nice who were introduced to the club by former player Romain Mathieu.  The half time score of 5 points all reflected the tenacity of the older home team and the score came from a three metre dash for the line from Danny Godfrey.  Luke Crockett (returning from a lengthy injury lay-off) and Joe Rogers were the pick of the forwards and Steve Thomas and Scott McCarthy marshalled the backs.

The more youthful university team won the honours in the second half benefiting from the fact that the match was played with passive scrums throughout and meaning that the team interpreter, Mark Curtis, could not influence matters in the tight.  The final score of 22 – 5 to the visitors could have been more as every time that the French backs had the ball they looked dangerous but thankfully every time that Mathieu received the ball he dropped it.

Next Saturday the 1st XV play away to Cardiff Saracens with the 2nd XV away to Caerau Ely.  Both games kick off at 2.30pm.