Fixture

The start of 2023 saw Old Penarthians travel to Tonyrefail for their WRU National League Division 4 East Central fixture hoping to turn around their run of losing results.  Unfortunately, the final score of 29-17 in favour of the home team did not change the club’s fortunes but there were strong indicators in the way that the team played that positive results are not far away.

There is still much to do in finding a settled side week-on-week but the spirit, enthusiasm and direction in which the players took on a bigger and well drilled Tonyrefail team should be applauded.  In fact if an injury to player/coach Jake Thomas, which saw him leave the field on 33 minutes of the first half, and a questionable referee  decision at a line out when Old Pens were attacking with 10 minutes of the match remaining allowing Tonyrefail to score the decisive match winning try, the result could have been different.

That said, Tonyrefail were worthy winners as they managed the windy conditions with good tactical kicks, particularly in the first half, and they also used the new rolling substitutes rule to great effect giving their big prop forwards rests on the touchline, before bringing them back on to the field for maximum impact late in the game. Old Penarthians were however probably unlucky not to have at least earned a bonus point in a losing result.

The match had started brightly for Old Pens despite the poor weather conditions with forwards and backs combining well to maintain possession whilst gaining ground into Tonyrefail territory. Drives from Tom Sidford, Josh Mellor and Joel deClaire saw their fellow forwards in support and with Gareth Clancy providing good service to Steffan Crimp the momentum was continued and Jake Thomas crashed over for his second try of the season after throwing an outrageous dummy that completely fooled three defenders.

Steffan Crimp converted the try and after four minutes Penarthians led 7-0

Tonyrefail, with the wind and now torrential rain at their backs, were soon on the attack however and when Rowan Allcock was adjudged to have made a high tackle and was shown a yellow card Jordan Jones stepped up and converted the resulting penalty

On 30 minutes, one of the deciding factors in the game saw Jake Thomas leave the field with an injury to his eye and cheekbone. Until then his tackling had been bone crunching with spectators wondering how the opposition players had manged to recover.

Soon afterwards despite good defensive tackling by Rhys Thomas and Josh Allcock, Sam Cristopher broke clear to score a try that Jones converted.  Tonyrefail again using the wind to their advantage were soon back on the attack and Clancy covering as last defender under his posts managed to collect the bouncing ball and evade two onrushing attackers.  Steadying himself he kicked for the touchline but was unsuccessful and when missed defensive tackles followed, Christopher crossed for his second try.  The successful conversion from Jones made the half time score 17-7

Penarthians second half started well with Steffan Crimp kicking deep into the Tonyrefail twenty-two.  They tried to run out of defence but made handling errors and after pressure from James Reynolds the ball ended up being touched down in the Tonyrefail goal area. This resulted in a drop out from the goal line which made little progress into the wind and Steffan Crimp collected the ball on the bounce and neatly dropped a goal from the 22m line in front of the posts.

At the restart Rhys Lakin made a welcome return to rugby after a pre-Christmas period of home renovations and business commitments and he was soon into action with a typically strong run out of defence taking two opposition defenders with him.

His efforts were however unable to stop Tonyrefail prop Luke Price crossing from short range to score a try under the posts converted by Jones for Tonyrefail to reimpose themselves with a 24-10 lead.

Penarthians were not overawed and went back on the attack.  With the opportunity of a kickable penalty captain Jonathan Crimp decided to kick for touch and the decision was justified when a fine catch by Josh Allcock saw the forwards drive over the line for Clancy to claim the score.  Steffan Crimp converted and the score was 24-17

Now the Old Pens were in the ascendancy and went on a sustained forward driven attack camped on the home team tryline for almost five minutes.  All the efforts from Sidford, Tony Kemp, Rhys Thomas, deClaire and others were unfortunately held up and when eventually the ball was passed to the threequarters a player was isolated and a penalty awarded. 

Penarthians came back with another attacking line out and Allcock again claimed the ball.  Unfortunately, on his release to scrum half Rhys Morgan a Tonyrefail player intercepted from an obvious off-side position that was ignored by the referee.  Tonyrefail made ground and eventually from a dominant Tonyrefail scrum they stole the ball from a Penarthians put-in and with an unguarded blindside Owen Davies raced clear to score an unconverted try for a final score of 29-17

Next week Old Penarthians make the long trip to Gwernyfed for a 2.30pm kick off hoping for another committed display but a better final result.