Fixture

Well, that’s it for Old Penarthians 1^st XV season 2022/23. Two home games in the last week brought down the curtain on the club’s participation in WRU National League Division 4 East Central for the year.

Unfortunately, there was to be no fairy tale finish and the team went down to two defeats by 64-12 and 47-15 to Wattstown and Llantwit Major respectively, who both needed good victories in their push for promotions.  Wattstown’s win ensured them of a promotion and they are still in the hunt to overhaul current leaders Llandaff in their remaining two fixtures.  Llantwit are still in the mix but will require help with the results featuring Treherbert and Caerau Ely.

It was therefore a disappointing end to a season that started with much promise with wins in the first and third games back in September.  Unfortunately, there was only to be one other draw in the rest of the matches played.  There are many factors that contributed to this poor return, not least the withdrawal of key players due to injury and the fear of injury that could have effected work commitments, as well as a lack of depth in the squad which meant that the remaining core members of the team could not take breaks to mend tired bodies.

A disrupted, disjointed season when players do not play on regular weekends also does not help as there are constant breaks in the season for Autumn internationals, Six Nations games and the prevailing Welsh weather.  These factors meant that Old Penarthians finished the season playing six games in a month. All these games against teams in the top half on the league. 

The core members of the team led by Jonathan Crimp included Tom Sidford, Joel deClaire and James Reynolds (who all played 17 of the matches), Alex Lewis, Rhys Thomas, Craig Haines, Tomos Hillman and Josh Allcock.  Rhys Lakin made a valuable contribution after Christmas and Jake Thomas mixed his coaching and playing duties to good effect.  Others to have played more than ten games were Matt Stingl, Josh Mellor, Rowan Allcock, Dan Jones and ‘new-boy’ Max Chandler. Special mention and thanks must also go to Rhys Morgan, and his parent club Penarth, who played 13 games on permit.

On the flip side of these stalwarts 26 players were selected who played only one or two games.

To the games themselves, in the mid-week game against Wattstown the opposition came out strongly and opened the scoring with a converted try inside 7 minutes.  Old Pens responded within three minutes and Joel deClaire crossed for his first try of the season, converted by Crimp. Three tries in the last ten minutes of the half determined the outcome and Wattstown turned their 42-7 half time lead into a 64-12 point victory.  The stubbornness shown by the Old Penarthians in the second half to only concede 24 points and to score a try themselves through Richie Moir epitomised the resilience in the side.

Joel deClaire, pictured with Club President, Tony Crimp, was man of the match against Wattstown

The Saturday fixture against Llantwit Major had to be transferred to the second XV pitch due to standing water on the main pitch following heavy overnight rain and in a competitive first half the interval score was 14-10 to the visitors.  The Penarthians points coming from a Crimp penalty, after a turn-over penalty won by deClaire.  This was followed by a try from deClaire that saw him bounce through tackles and stretch to score after a quickly taken penalty by Rhys Morgan.  Crimp converted.

The second half could not have started in a worse fashion for the Old Pens when Llantwit ran in three tries in the first eight minutes, two of which were converted to make the score 10-33. Old Pens did not however give up and good attacking runs from Alex Lewis, Rhys Lakin and Richie Moir ensured competitiveness. In fact, on 17 minutes from a good penalty kick to touch from Morgan a throw in from James Reynolds was well caught by Josh Allcock and from the ensuing forward drive deClaire touched down for the second time in the day and third time in two games.

Penarthians then ensured that all their substitutes were used and whilst most of the rest of the game was dominated by the visitors the defensive efforts of Matt Stingl, Tom Sidford and Tyler Carter in particular should be applauded.

The final try under the posts by Ethan White, which he converted, made the full-time score 15-47 and brought the game and the season to a conclusion. It is hoped that next season, which sees the Club celebrate its centenary, will bring the same hard work from the players but with more reward in the scorelines and a campaign with more wins than losses.

Man of the match against Llantwit Major was Matt Stingl