SEASIDERS PREVAIL IN THE MUD
Penarth 17 Aberdare 13
This was the ‘cup’, not the league and the visitors from the Cynon Valley were unrecognisable from the side beaten 42-3 on the same ground in December. The match went ahead despite the conditions on a day when only four of the sixteen 3rd round ties in the Swalec Plate went ahead.
The Seasiders put out a strong team, with only Owain George clearly rested to give Chris Mortimer a long-awaited run-out and they put Aberdare under immediate pressure as Liam Bevan drove deep into the visitors’ territory. A 5m line-out was secured and Gary Power was driven over for an opening try after only 2 minutes.
This made it look as if it was going to be a walk-over, but it never threatened to turn into one from that point onwards. In fact, although Penarth had already worked out how to take Aberdare to the cleaners, they preferred to let the conditions even things up and, dare I say it, play a bit of rugby.
This was never going to get them anywhere and sure enough Aberdare centre Daniel Frail pulled 3 points back with a 40m penalty on 13 minutes, before things got even worse. A long kick ahead was fielded on his 22 metre line by Chris Poole, but the right wing lost his footing in spectacular fashion in the mud and Aberdare took full advantage, shipping the ball quickly wide for wing Robert Jones to slip over in the corner.
Leading 8-7, the visitors laid siege to the Penarth line and it all looked a bit dodgy for a while until a penalty award to the home side allowed a spectacular break-out by Liam Bevan, taken on by Rhys Lakin and only running out of steam when the centre was body-checked as he chipped ahead. Still the rain poured down and the match descended into a scrappy mess with neither side looking even vaguely as if they were going to score until the 40th minute when the visitors knocked on when a try seemed certain.
The second half promised more of the same and largely delivered until the end of the third quarter when the home pack finally took matters in hand and set up a ferocious session of pick-up-and-drive that ended with a five-metre line-out. Bizarrely, no-one even jumped for the throw, but Penarth took possession anyway and Aaron Ellis broke free to regain the lead with a well-taken try.
Not that it was all over with twenty minutes to go and the visitors weren’t by any means finished. After a lengthy delay for injury, they surged up the middle of the field with home defenders standing off their tackles and moved it wide for Robert Jones to score his second in the corner. Another lengthy delay for injury left about ten minutes’ playing time, but no-one apart from the referee could be certain how much time was left. Luckily, the Seasiders were able to maintain the pressure and kept Aberdare bottled up in their own 22 until they finally conceded a penalty which James Docherty converted for a final score of 17-13.
This was the Seasiders’ tenth successive win in all competitions, beating the nine they achieved in 2004-5 and seeing them safely through to the last 16. They return to league action next weekend with a visit to third from bottom Fairwater. The Cardiff side have actually won the last two league games they played in October and November, but since their most recent outing was a 36-0 defeat at Pentyrch in the second round of the plate, it’s hard to know what to make of that.
PENARTH Steve Roberts, Chris Poole, Rhys Lakin [Gareth Clancy], Liam Bevan, James Crothers, James Docherty, Chris Mortimer [Andrew Edwards], Richard Merrett, Gary Power, David Morgan [Carwyn Griffiths], James Roach, Darryl Howden, Marc Devine, Aaron Ellis, Geraint Blake