Fixture

Llandrindod Wells 34 Old Penarthians 8

Old Penarthians Youth 30 St Albans Youth 24

Old Penarthians Womens XV 12 Clwb Rygbi Cymry Caerdydd Womens XV 7

Watching Old Penarthians 1^st XV play rugby is like being on a roller coaster. You never know if you will be on a high or a low.  After the high of a victory at home against second placed Cefn Coed in the previous match, with a four-try bonus point within 25 minutes, it was the bottom of the curve away to Llandrindod Wells last weekend in their latest Division 5 East Central fixture. The scoreline in favour of the home team by 34 points to 8 reflected the nature of the game in which Old Penarthians featured far more negative talking points than positive.

It may have been a two-hour journey to the mid-Wales team but the coach arrived in plenty of time for any tired legs to have stretched and for the players to have had sufficient time for match day preparations. But all that time could not be translated into a performance that was lacklustre from the start and saw Llandrindod score their first try after two mins and a second converted try eight minutes later for a 12-0 lead to Llandrindod.

The Old Pens did rally for the rest of the half but too many errors contributed to a poor spectacle for the few travelling supporters. That said there were a couple of opportunities for Richie Moir in open play and for Josh Alcock, James Reynolds and Jake Thomas in the tight. In fact, the first half could have ended on a positive when a penalty was awarded to Old Pens in front of the posts within the opposition twenty-two.

Instead of some control and a possible three points a spur of the moment decision by Garth Clancy to take the ball quickly saw him run into the opposition without support and when his pass also failed to find a member of his own team the opposition centre intercepted and ran away uncontested from 90m to score a converted try.  So instead of a 12-3 half time scoreline it was 19-0

The second half was literally an uphill battle with Old Pens playing against the slope of the pitch but it started positively with a try inside two minutes from Rory Hone after a well-timed pass from substitute Rhys Lakin.  The conversion was missed but three minutes later Josh Preece made amends with a penalty and a more competitive scoreline of 19-8.  What it could have been without the interception try.

That was however to be the end of Old Penarthains comeback and other than a raking touch-finder from captain of the day, Connor Christie, which earned a 50-22 lineout, the rest of the half belonged to Llandrindod who ran in two more converted tries and a penalty for a 34-8 victory.

On a much more positive note Old Penarthians Youth XV played at home in the semi-final of the Cardiff Premiership play-off against St Albans after a stand-out victory the weekend before in a hard fought away victory in the quarter finals against Barry. The Buns themselves had had a fine victory the week before against a strong Builth Wells youth XV so a good contest was expected.

And the large touchline support for both sides was not disappointed as they saw two evenly matched teams produce some excellent rugby. In fact, at the half time interval the teams could not be separated after two tries from Steff Davies and Harvey Bryant wide out on the touchlines which could not be converted saw a 10-10 scoreline

The second half saw the Old Pens jump out to a 30-17 scoreline with tries from Gruff Pendleton-Jones, James Sibery and Luke Ingram.  Sibery converting his own try and adding a penalty.  Then with ten minutes left, St Albans pulled one converted try back to make the margin of difference six points.  A fine collective defensive effort kept the scoreline at 30-24 and a deserving victory.  Man of the Match was skipper, Joe Francis-Oaten, however, the award could have gone to a number of players.  

The final is to be played on 21st December against a fancied Merthyr Youth.  Given the manner in which the team played in the last few games, they should fear no-one.  

Then on Sunday there was more positive news for the club when the Old Penarthians Women’s XV played their WRU Championship league fixture at home to Clwb Rygbi Cymry Caerdydd. Clwb have been something of a bogey team for the Women’s XV having beaten them twice in the league last season and in the Cup Final at the Principality Stadium last April. Clwb had also won the reverse league fixture at the beginning of this season but Sunday was to end that run with a well-deserved and hard-fought victory by 12 points to 7.

The pitch conditions nor the weather made for a free-flowing game of rugby but both teams tried to run the ball whenever they could, but it was a dominant forward performance from the home team that set the platform for the victory. Supported by some strong defensive tackling when required which stifled Clwb’ s opportunities.

Old Penarthians took the lead in the first half through an unconverted try from Kim Seaford-Jones but Clwb Rygbi struck back with a try of their own which was converted for a 7-5 lead.  Almost immediately from the kick off Penarthians struck again from long range for a try from Rachel Cosier converted by Luca Laky for a 12-7 lead at half time.

That was to be the final score but it does not reflect the performance of the team in the second half as they went close to scoring on several occasions to be held up by determined defence.  When the final whistle did blow there were exuberant celebrations from the team which were fully justified after such a long wait to beat their more-established opponents.