Fixture

After the postponement of the away fixture against Pontycymer the week before due to a waterlogged pitch it was a return to Division 4 East Central league action for Old Penarthians 1^st XV at home against second placed Tonyrefail.

The pitch was in remarkably good condition considering it resembled a swimming pool 36 hours previously and under a bright sky both teams and sets of supporters impeccably observed a minute’s silence before kick-off in acknowledgement of Remembrance Day.

Penarthians started the stronger despite having to commence the game with 14 players due to the absence of a competitive front row. Threequarters and forwards combined well and territory was gained through good use of quick ball.  It was however a penalty from Jordan Jones of Tonyrefail after 10 minutes that opened the scoring.

The response from Old Pens was immediate and after 8 or 9 phases of play with drives from Tom Sidford, Jake Thomas and Matt Stingl it gave Gareth Clancy the opportunity to release Jon Crimp and Rowan Allcock who inter-passed to allow Connor Christie to score a try which Crimp converted. Old Pens led 7-3.

On 20 minutes Tonyrefail were back on the attack and from a quickly taken penalty which caught the Old Pens defence off guard Garreg Lewis scored for Jones to convert. Again Old Pens responded positively and from a line our drive with James Reynolds in control of the ball the advancing maul was illegally pulled down allowing Crimp to kick the resulting penalty and tie the scores.

On 30 minutes Penarthians again attacked from deep and with Rhys Lakin making his seasonal debut as a replacement for the injured Rory Hone making strong yards before he offloaded to Sidford and the ball was recycled and with two well timed passes Crimp and Allcock released Youth Team product Ieuan Harris who beat two men to score his first senior try for the club. Crimp converted and Old Pens led again by 17-10.

The nature of the game meant that the next score was bound to go to the visitors and sure enough after 38 minutes they scored another try wide out which went unconverted by Jones. The last attacks of the half however went to the 14-man home team and from another forward drive from a line out won by Josh Allcock Tonyrefail infringed allowing Crimp to kick a penalty for a half time lead of 20 points to 15.

This was however to be the last score for Old Penarthians in the match as a very strong talking to by the Tonyrefail coaching team to their players at the break pointed out the home team manpower deficiencies and led to a change of tactics.  This involved more direct forward drives to tie in the Penarthians defenders before giving quick ball to their threequarters to allow the wide players to run into spaces created by the mismatch of numbers.

It resulted in four second half tries through Kieran Hill, Luke Price, Jake Williams and Cory Copp.  All converted by Jordan Jones.

Despite these scores the defensive effort by the Old Pens could not be faulted and everyone who participated as a starter or as a substitute gave their all, be it from the more experienced replacements Nick Vagges and Jon deClaire or newcomers Charlie Wheatley and Iestyn Bennett.

In fact, with the score at 36-20 in favour of Tonyrefail, Old Pens thought that they had scored a try though Sidford after a well driven maul, only for the referee to adjudge that the ball had been held up and that what all the home supporters thought would be a penalty for an earlier infringement was also turned away. The try and possible conversion may not have swayed the final result but it would have been some reward for the efforts of the team in a match that was eventually lost by 43 points to 20.

It is also worthy to note that with his unexpected appearance as a second half substitute that Joel deClaire made his 200^th appearance for the 1^st XV. A formal acknowledgement of this achievement will be made after the next home game on 25^th November

The Old Penarthians next game is however away to Caerau Ely on Saturday 18^th November with a scheduled kick off at 2.30pm