Fixture

Last Saturday Old Penarthians travelled to Cefn Coed for the third time in six months, this time for a match in the WRU Division 5 Cup competition.  The side’s previous excursions to the team north on the A465 had not been successful resulting in a last day relegation defeat from Division 4 East Central and a 2024/25 seasonal opening one-point defeat. This latest trip was an improvement with a 24 -24 draw but ultimately Cefn Coed progressed to the next round curtesy of a higher try count, scoring four tries compared to Old Penarthians three.

It was a performance that captain Tom Sidford can be proud of because the team had to play the full match with only 14 players because they could not raise a competitive front row.  There were times when the 14-men dominated the match with good territory and attacking opportunities and at the beginning of the second half led 17-7, but in the end tiredness and injuries affected the team and swayed the result in favour of the home team

Good points to come from the game were the fearless tackling and attacking runs of Henry Kynaston, who’s game was brought to an early end by a ‘dump tackle’ that was correctly penalised by the referee but resulted in a neck and shoulder injury to Kynaston. The attacking lines run by Connor Christie and Rory Hone, who once again sustained a groin injury in racing along the touchline forcing him to leave the pitch. Another bone crunching tackle by Jake Thomas and the overall tackling of Rhys Thomas who rarely (if ever) misses a tackle

The fact that the Old Pens scored the first and last points of the game also shows a side with resilience but also one that cannot yet fully capitalise on their periods of ascendancy.

The first score came from an accurate line out throw by Joel deClaire to James Reynolds, brought down and driven on by Kynaston and Sidford before a pass to Mark Smart saw him score his second try of the season. Both against Cefn Coed. The conversion by Josh Preece was successful and Old Pens led 7-0.

Penarthians continued to attack and from a defensive kick from within his own half by Joel deClaire that bounced into touch inside the opposition twenty-two for an attacking lineout a well worked threequarter move almost set Alex Lewis, free but he was stopped short of the tryline

The Cefn Coed team was also much changed from the earlier league encounter and their forwards were not as fluent or aggressive and were prone to mistakes but the visitors could not take full  advantage and with two minutes of the half remaining a missed tackle in midfield led to a try under the posts and a half time scoreline of 7-7.

The second half started brightly and within three minutes an attack in the opposition half led initially by Jon Crimp, James Reynolds and Christie gave the forwards an opportunity to drive towards the try line.  When the ball was recycled by Richie Moir he found the deClaire brothers in space with little opposition defence in front of them and it was Jon who sold the dummy and stepped inside to score leaving Joel wondering if he should give his sibling a lift home after the match. Preece converted. Preece was successful with a penalty six minutes later and Old Pens led 17-7.

The next 20 minutes were however dominated by Cefn Coed and another mistake in defence gifted the home side a try which went unconverted before an unnecessary  kick ahead by Old Pens when on the attack was returned by Cefn for a converted try and a 19-17 lead.

Cefn then scored their best try of the game after 35 minutes when from a scrum in front of the visitors posts the ball was passed quickly to the right and an incisive break against a depleted defence resulted in an unconverted fourth try, which in the end was to be decisive.

Penarthians were not to be denied however and returned to the attack. A series of penalties resulted and from one of these Sidford attempted a chip and chase. The chip was successful but with Sidford never getting out of first gear the chase was doomed.

A further penalty was however awarded and with Jake Thomas expected to charge forward he cleverly acted as a decoy and instead passed to Christie at speed who scored. Preece converted to tie the scores as the referee blew for full time. 

With extra time  looming the referee consulted the competition rules to find that try count was an initial criteria and so Cefn Coed were deemed the winners.

Next Saturday Old Penarthians are on their travels again, this time with a short trip into Cardiff to play a league fixture against Caerau Ely. Kick-off is scheduled for 2.30pm.