Fixture

Saturday 21^st October 2017

Last Saturday both Old Penarthians teams played at home, but before the games started there was a moving tribute to the memory of Sue Barter, the Club’s Mini &Junior Chairperson, when the players of all four teams were applauded onto the pitch be a guard of honour made up from the players of the M&J Section who had been introduced to the game by Sue in her role as their U6 coach. 

This was followed by a traditional minute’s silence where the senior players faced the players of the future and their parents in what was a solemn moment when even the impending weather storm seemed to abate for a short period.

The 1^st XV match started with Old Penarthians playing with the very strong wind at their backs and receiving the kick off. The ball was caught and carried at the Wattstown forwards who were strong in defence. In fact, it was obvious from the start that Wattstown were going to play a tight, forward orientated game.  They were by far the bigger outfit and within five minutes they had pushed the Old Penarthians scrum off the ball twice to win penalties.

From the possession on eight minutes Wattstown again sent their big forwards into contact and secured several phases of play before powering over to score a try that was converted.  Whilst the Old Pens defence was determined it was unfortunately not aggressive enough and it allowed Wattstown to make progress and prevented Old Penarthians capitalising on the favourable wind.

On 22 minutes another strong surge from the visiting forwards under the direction of their scrum half saw another try conceded.  This time the conversion was unsuccessful.

Shortly after this score, Geraint Blake withdrew with an injury to be replaced by Josh Allcock.  To Allcock’s credit, despite being the smallest forward on the field, he did bring an aggression to the tackle area that he maintained throughout the match and was an example to his team mates.

Unfortunately, he was powerless to stop another Wattstown try direct from a scrummage to give the visitors a 17 – 0 lead after 28 minutes.

A yellow card to the Wattstown no 8 did however give Penarthians some hope and for the first time in the half they had some sustained pressure in the opposition twenty-two.  Several good lineouts from Dave Cooper were won by Joel deClaire and the forwards gained territory.  However, not enough possession was moved to the threequarters and attacks were stifled. 

On 38 minutes a penalty was quickly taken by David Lakin and he ran at the defence.  A pass to Jon Crimp allowed the move to gain momentum and when Crimp’s pass was taken on by Jon Patterson an overlap was created that Fearghas Gough willingly accepted to score in the corner.  The conversion was unsuccessful and almost immediately the half time whistle was blown

The second half saw the introduction of Stuart Clarke on for Jack Margetson and debutant Stan Ellis replacing newly married Dave Hosking, who was playing his first game of the season.

Despite the kick off from Lakin going 10m backwards possession was regathered and Old Pens started to play with a faster tempo trying to get the ball to their threequarters on more occasions.  This worked well and Rhys Lakin, Rob Gill and Nathan Facey all had opportunities to run at their opposite numbers.  Patterson also nearly broke free but his grubber kick inside the twenty-two was ineffective.

Chad Wilson nearly crossed the line and there were two other close efforts from Clarke and Sam Hall but again they were repelled. Despite this early hard work, Wattstown now had the wind in their favour to relieve the pressure and gain territory.  This they did to good affect after 18 minutes when the Wattstown forwards gained their fourth try and with it a bonus point.  The conversion was good and the score was 24 – 5.

Old Penarthians did not give up however and with the visitors again reduced to 14 players more good attacks from Crimp, Lakin, deClaire and Clarke gained ground and territory.  The reward came on 32 minutes when a quick release from a ruck gave Rhys Lakin an opportunity on the blind side to make progress.  With the defender committed the final pass to Gill saw him run in from ten metres to score a try in the corner.

This was to be the last real opportunity for both teams and the final score was a 24 – 10 victory to the visitors.

Next week Old Penarthians first team are away to table topping Cowbridge hoping for a day more suited to expansive rugby.  The seconds are away to Caerau Ely in the next round of the CADRU Ron Lucock Cup competition.  Both matches are scheduled to kick off at 2.30pm.