Fixture

Following five weeks of inactivity due to poor weather, bad ground conditions and Six Nations rugby internationals Old Penarthians 1^st XV returned to action in a WRU Division South East Central (B) away to Tonyrefail. It would have been hoped that the players would have been full of enthusiasm to retake the field but nothing is that straight forward and unfortunately team manager, James Williams, and Club Coach, Jake Thomas, spent most of Friday and Saturday morning putting together a team.

This was only achieved with the assistance given by Wattstown and Llandaff North who generously allowed Callum Hutton, Daniel Lewis and Mike Williams to play on permit.  All three contributed well to a team who may have lost by 40 points to 14 but were not deserving of such a losing margin.

The effort by all the players could not be faulted and if it had not been for a few refereeing decisions and a controversial penalty kick awarded by linesman Tony Crimp, much to the annoyance of his son who thought the kick passed outside of the upright, the final score would have been closer. That said Tonyrefail deserved their victory but there were good points that Old Penarthians could take away from the defeat.

Those included the counterattacking from fullback by Rhys Goodfellow, the penetration achieved in midfield by Rhys Lakin, the link play at half back by Tomos Hillman and Jon Crimp.  All of which was  achieved on the back of coordinated attack play by the forwards who organised their pod systems well and off-loaded the ball in contact effectively to create opportunities.

It was however penalties that dictated the match in the early stages with Jordan Jones kicking two in the third and tenth minutes. 

On 25 minutes however Penarthians took the lead when after a good penalty kick to the corner from captain Jon Crimp the lineout was won cleanly by Hutton from a Greg Freaney throw-in. The forwards mauled the ball forward and Jake Thomas scored the try.  Crimp converted from the touchline for a 7-6 lead

Tonyrefail hit back immediately and Jones kicked another penalty.  Then, as the half time whistle approached Tom Sidford was shown a yellow card at a lineout for early engagement of the opposition jumper and from the resulting penalty and lineout prop Luke Price barrelled over for a converted try and a half time score of 16-7 to the home team

Within 5 minutes of the restart Tonyrefail made the one-man advantage work in their favour when the ball won at a lineout on the right-hand side of the pitch was spread quickly across the backline for winger Owen Lewis to score a try in the opposite corner.  The kick was unsuccessful.

Then on 16 minutes a strong Penarthians scrum led by Sam Hall, Freany and Matt Stingl pushed Tonyrefail off their own ball at a five-metre scrummage but as the ball went loose Tonyrefail acted quicker and Dylan Burrows scored under the posts for Jones to convert to make the score 28-7.

Substitutions brought James Williams and Joe Buckley onto the pitch and both contributed in some of the best plays of the match when the side showed positive attacking intent with Mike Williams and Hutton leading from the front ably supported by Lakin, Crimp and Evan Morgan.  It was against the run of play that from an attack in the opposition twenty-two that the ball was stolen at a breakdown and Tonyrefail broke away for Alex Pugsley to score.

Things did not get any better when straight from the kick off the ball was gathered by Tonyrefail and some direct running led to a score under the posts by Gareg Lewis converted by Jones.

Penarthians did not however give up and dominated the last ten minutes of the game which led to a well-deserved try by Hutton which was again converted by Crimp from a wide angle to make the final score 40-14

Penarthians return to 1^st XV action on Saturday with a home league fixture against Llantwit Major