Fixture

Match Result:  Llandaff 14 Old Penarthians 20

Following the cancellation of the match the previous week at Wattstown due to a waterlogged pitch, Old Penarthians returned to Division 3 East Central (B) league action away to Llandaff.

The team started without in-form forward Adan Cole but seasonal starts were given to Stuart Clarke in the second row and to Nathan Smith at outside half. Coaches Simon Hurley and Anthony Davies also experimented with a positional change by moving Chris Poole to fullback, to allow him more space to launch his attacks, with Jon Crimp swapping to centre.

After ten minutes this proved inspired when Tom Hillman passed from a scrum inside his own half to Nathan Smith who burst through two tackles.  Smith made 15m before passing to Rowan Allcock and as he entered the opposition 22 he passed to the overlapping Poole who crossed at the corner for his sixth try of the season.  The conversion was missed but the Old Pens led 5 – 0.

Old Pens soon launched another attack from a successful lineout where Joel deClaire found James Beaton and Rhys Lakin made ground into mid-field. Unfortunately, he could not quite release his arms to pass to his supporting threequarters. 

Llandaff were however equally impressive in the threequarters and on 20mins after a series of forward drives the Llandaff winger Ryan Butler scored under the posts after the Old Pens defence was outnumbered.  The conversion by Cameron Hamer was successful and Llandaff led 7 – 5.

It was also good to see that after an intense scrummaging session under the watchful eyes of former Wales front-rower Rhys Thomas, that there was a much improved performance by the forwards in this phase of the play.  Often resulting in Llandaff being under pressure.

It was therefore somewhat ironic that with Stu Clarke spending ten minutes on the touchline falling foul of the referee’s decision that too many penalties had been given away at the break down, that Llandaff pushed the Old Pens scrum over the tryline for David Hugo to score.  Hamer converted and after 35 minutes Llandaff led by 9 points

 From a well-judged restart kick off by Smith a Llandaff forward was caught in possession by a flying Allcock and Callum Wingren and with support arriving the ball was recycled to release Tom Sidford and Sam Hall.  The forwards carried the move on before Hillman changed direction to Lakin. 

Lakin passed to Louis Chandler with support on his outside and a try almost assured.  Chandler however was determined that a pass was not an option and after several shrugs of the shoulders and attempted dummies he crossed the line from 25m to score himself. The conversion was missed.

Penarthians continued on the offence for the last three minutes of the half and having won one penalty at a scrum, five metres from the Llandaff tryline, were surprised to be penalised themselves when the next scrum was reset. Llandaff cleared their lines and the half time score was 14 – 10 to the home team.

Old Penarthians started the second half playing into a freshening wind and a low sun and it was almost a perfect start when Poole broke out from his own twenty-two before being tackled at the other end of the field.  Chandler, deClaire and Beaton were in support but were adjudged to have gone of their feet and the move faltered.

At this stage Penarthians replaced the tiring Gary Bishop with James Roach with Sidford moving up to prop.  The forwards maintained pressure and after 8mins Crimp kicked a penalty and Old Pens trained by only one point.

After 15  minutes deClaire was yellow carded after another accumulation of penalties but it did not restrict the forwards who launched an impressive 40m rolling maul up the field into the Llandaff twenty-two.  Eventually the ball was released but Smith was held up in a maul and Llandaff awarded a scrum

Further substitutions followed as Penarthians sought a winning score.  Josh Allcock and John Patterson replaced the injured Chandler and Smith and Scott Mackie went on for Clarke.

And it was the forwards who continued to dominate the latter part of the match and after 35 mins Llandaff were reduced to 14 men after a yellow card offence.  It proved decisive as the reduced forwards could not contain another driving maul from the Old Pens forwards which resulted in Josh Allcock scoring the try.  Crimp’s conversion was successful and after a final series of controlled rucks and mauls the match ended with a deserved Old Pens win by 20 points to 14.

This Saturday the first XV play at home to St Albans, who are currently second in the league. The second XV are away to Rumney in the second round of the Ron Lucock Cup.  Both games kick off at 2.30pm