TREVOR BAGS THE POINTS
Pentyrch 14 Penarth 15
After 20 minutes the Seasiders looked down and out, fourteen points adrift. A swirling, blustery wind at the exposed Parc y Dwrlwyn Fields, together with a slick and powerful-looking home side that had won its previous three games were making things look bleak.
Admittedly, both sides were struggling with the conditions, but it was the hosts that benefitted first, as openside D.Ince latched on to a loose pass and crashed through to the visitors’ twenty-two before putting left wing G Ayres in at the corner. Then, within a minute, the Seasiders had conceded a reversed penalty (the old weakness of back-chat) and infringed in the consequent line-out, leading to a converted penalty from M Bean.
There was a brief pause as Penarth missed a penalty before Bean extended the lead to 11-0 on 16 minutes and then 14-0 at the end of the first quarter as the referee chastised the wayward visitors.
It certainly looked as if the Seasiders couldn’t put a foot right and the Pentyrch certainly looked the part at the time. What no-one knew then was that the hosts were never to look remotely like adding to their total and the puzzle turned out to be why it took Penarth until the 78th minute to secure the points.
The fight-back, such as it was, started immediately as the Seasiders expertly drove a maul to the line, but had to settle for a penalty for an earlier offence. However, since the visitors clearly had the upper hand in the tight the writing was on the wall for Pentyrch.
The second half brought gentler weather conditions, but both sides continued to struggle. The difference was that the Seasiders knew the maul was the answer, but needed a little time to get their act together. In fact, it took them a further 25 minutes practice before they finally managed to make it count. Debutant lock Gareth Williams made an entry as James Docherty slid a 40 metre penalty just wide, but the game was about to open up decisively.
Marc Devine took the restart and made 40 legs-pumping metres with the pack in howling support. The drive was stopped under the posts, where Docherty held the ball at the base of the ruck long enough to deliver a reverse pass to Steve Roberts. The full-back intelligently corner-flagged it to make sure of the try, leaving the score on 14-8 with 15 minutes left.
More mauling practise followed and while it didn’t look as if anyone was panicking, the clock was rapidly running down and the Seasiders were still in possession of their fifth bonus point in as many matches.
Luckily they managed to spoil this record with two minutes to go, ditching the losing bonus in favour of all four for the win. Having been camped out in the Pentyrch 22 for several minutes as Docherty orchestrated a series of thrusts from the backs, the pack regained control. Under the benign eye of a referee that had pinged them consistently on previous assaults, they drove decisively over with Geraint Blake marking the winning try.
Penarth paradoxically remained in sixth position after this win, but are much better placed only three points behind the leaders in what is looking like a refreshingly open division. 11th-placed Llandaff, winless in five matches, are the visitors to the Athletic Field this Saturday.
PENARTH Steve Roberts, Chris Thorne (Andrew Edwards), Rhys Lakin, Liam Bevan, James Crothers, James Docherty, Owain George, Richard Merrett, Rhys Blake, Gary Power, James Roach (Gareth Williams), Darrol Howden, Marc Devine, Elliott Smith, Geraint Blake
OTHER RESULTS:
BRECON 6-8 LLANDAFF NORTH
FAIRWATER 10-22 TYLORSTOWN
LLANDAFF 0-12 HEOL-Y-CYW
LLANISHEN 9-15 ABERDARE
ST.PETERS 33-6 TREHERBERT