Fixture

Last Saturday Old Penarthians travelled the short distance to Trelai Park to play their Division 4 East Central league fixture against Caerau Ely and for the first time in the calendar year came away with a well-deserved 34 points to 19 points victory

It has been a hard eleven months for the team and their management group with only two draws to show for all their endeavours in this time. It was particularly good to see coach Jake Thomas nearly smile after the match but fully justify his decision to stay with the team that has worked very hard for him and the club throughout.  The team is now approaching a balance between experience and youth with six former youth XV players appearing in the victory against Caerau

This one win does not however make a season and there is much more work still to be done to ensure more positive results and hopefully a climb up the table

The match against Caerau started with the home side on the attack playing into a strong wind but resolute defence by Old Pens ensured their tryline was not crossed. A breakout by Tom Sidford supported by Alfie Graddon was however turned over and Caerau kicked into the Old Pens twenty-two. The ball was caught by Rowan Allcock and he made 20m before being tackled and Caerau infringed.  After some discussion Jonathan Crimp decided to take a kick at goal from 50m in front of the posts.  The kick was successful.

On 22 mins a line out infringement by Caerau resulted in Jake Thomas taking a quick tap penalty and when he was tackled within 10m this time there was no discussion and Crimp stepped up to kick another 50m penalty from a wider angle.

From the kick off the ball was caught by Sidford who passed to Gareth Clancy who with the wind in his favour returned the ball 50m to just outside the Caerau 22.  The resulting line out was stolen by Andy Gill and at the breakdown Caerau infringed and Crimp kicked his third penalty for a 9-0 lead.

Caerau were however soon back on the attack through their forwards and despite withstanding the pressure with outstanding goal line defence from Charlie Wheatley, Elliot Dyment-Salmon and Thomas a try resulted which was converted and after 32 minutes the score was 7-9.

Five minutes later Penarthians were awarded another penalty and with relative ease from 20m Crimp converted.

The half finished with the best attack of the period when from the kick off the forwards drove a maul forward 20m before releasing the threequarters. Crimp set Rhys Lakin into the opposition and as he was stopped Connor Christie continued the move. His kick forward was picked up by winger Rory Hone, after a slip by the Caerau fullback. Hone passed to Clancy but with support available the ball was dislodged forward and from the Caerau scrum the half time whistle was blown with a 12-7 score in favour of the visitors.

The interval saw Liam Brooks replace Graddon in the front row to join Tristan Hammond who had earlier replaced an injured Allcock

An early mistake to keep a long kick off from Caerau in play rather than let the ball go dead for an attacking scrum on halfway meant the defence of a lineout inside the Penarthians twenty-two which Caerau took full advantage of and scored a converted try to lead 14-12

The return kick off was short and good work by James Reynolds saw him race into space with support from Crimp. After the tackle there was backchat from a Caerau player and with the penalty advance Crimp kicked the visitors back into the lead.

Despite playing into the wind Penarthians continued to apply pressure and after forward drives near the Caerau tryline from Gill, Thomas and Sidford the ball was passed to the backs and Lakin and Christie combined to free Ieuan Harris to score and Crimp to convert

Caerau then used the wind to their advantage and gained territory in the Old Pens 22 and from an Old Pens scrum the ball was not controlled and the Caerau scrum half pounced to score an unconverted try to close the score to three points.

This is the time that Old Penarthians usually start to have doubts about their abilities and surrender but not on Saturday when they fashioned two tries from within their own half to seal the victory.  Firstly, from a line out won cleanly and a couple of forward drives Lakin made ground with Jake Thomas in support. He in turn found Rhys Thomas on his shoulder and with a well-timed pass the older Thomas raced home from 50m to score.  Crimp converted.

From the kick off the ball was caught again by Sidford and instinctively he passed the ball to Clancy. He passed to Crimp inside the twenty-two but with overlaps available passes to Jake Thomas and  Christie made space for Harris to run in from 35m to score.  Crimp missed the conversion but Penarthians were able to see out a fractious last five minutes for a win by 34-19

On Saturday, Old Penarthians 1^st XV try to add to their success in a home fixture against Ynysowen with a scheduled kick off at 2.30pm