SEASIDERS’ BONUS WIN
Penarth 33 Fairwater 10
Penarth secured their fourth bonus point in as many matches as they struggled for an hour to overcome bottom club Fairwater at the Athletic Field last Saturday. Brilliant sunshine, a hard pitch and opponents who’d made a less than sparkling start to the season held out the promise of some champagne rugby, but Fairwater hadn’t been given copies of that script.
The one they were reading from contained few entertaining details, consisting mostly of remarkably effective spoiling, which the Seasiders searched in vain for a way around.
And after only ten minutes play, it got worse. Having kicked the hosts into an early lead with a penalty, outside half James Docherty agonisingly ignored an overlap and elected to kick down the throat of Fairwater’s left wing. This enterprising individual set off from his own 10 metre line and with assistance from only a little light blocking from his back row, scorched over at the posts for a 7-3 lead.
Luckily, no-one on the home side was about to panic and further penalty exchanges saw the teams turn around at the end of a largely event-free first half with the visitors still leading 10-9.
Any hopes we harboured that matters might improve in the second half were soon dashed as the stalemate continued and it wasn’t until Jason Allen and Rob Pearce were introduced to the proceedings on the hour that things began to liven up.
The experienced Allen made an immediate impact as he claimed the ball on half-way and set hooker Rhys Blake off on a clean break. When Reg was tackled 15m short of the line, the ball was rapidly worked to the opposite wing where Chris Thorne was stopped just short. Luckily Steve Roberts was on hand to take the pass out of the tackle and set Thorne up again for the score in the corner.
Straight from the restart, Rob Pearce got his toe to a loose one and while the Fairwater defence was soon on to the bobbling ball, the flanker followed through and interfered effectively enough to allow the fast-arriving Liam Bevan to pick up and score.
A brief flurry of resistance from the visitors didn’t slow things down for long as the Penarth backs got into the swing at last. James Roach took time out from his sterling work in the boilerhouse to make a stylish 10m in midfield before setting James Crothers clear. The wing was unexpectedly caught, but got the ball away to Liam Bevan who went under the posts for his second.
With a bonus point already in the bag and eleven and a half minutes into injury time, the Seasiders found themselves camped out in the visitors’ twenty-two as the pack tried to drive one over. At the third attempt, they released the ball to the backs and Rhys Lakin shrugged off two tackles to score under the posts.
Sitting in sixth place, but only five points behind leaders Llanishen, the Seasiders travel on Saturday to visit 5th-placed Pentyrch, 30-20 winners against Heol-y-Cyw last time out.
PENARTH Steve Roberts, Chris Thorne, Rhys Lakin, Liam Bevan, James Crothers, James Docherty, Owain George (Andrew Edwards), Richard Merrett, Rhys Blake, Gary Power, James Roach, Darrol Hawden, Marc Devine, Mike Clare, Geraint Blake (Rob Pearce)
OTHER RESULTS:
ABERDARE 46-12 LLANDAFF
HEOL-Y-CYW 20-30 PENTYRCH
LLANDAFF NORTH 23-32 LLANISHEN
TREHERBERT 17-34 BRECON
TYLORSTOWN 29-24 ST.PETERS