PENARTH STILL THE TEAM TO BEAT
Fairwater 0 Penarth 7
So still no-one’s worked out how to beat the Seasiders since St.Peters emerged 18-12 victors in a scrappy game in the middle of September. Since then, Penarth have racked up 11 consecutive wins in all competitions, with this narrow defeat of lowly Fairwater being the ninth in a row in the league.
The good news nearly ends there, except to complement the team on their exemplary discipline. The fact that only two yellow cards per side were issued during this game was quite remarkable considering the circumstances.
Fairwater had hit a rich seam of form in their own right, having won their last three league games.
Luckily, the Seasiders didn’t get to the top of this table by running out of ideas and one last throw of the dice yielded the hardest-fought four points they’re likely to get their hands on all season. A close-quarters drive to the line by James Roach was stopped, but the ball was expertly slipped to Aaron Ellis who twisted over to score with only five minutes to go. James Docherty then landed the only successful kick of the afternoon for a 7-0 win.
Meanwhile, the other fixtures in the division fell out more or less as Penarth would probably have preferred, with St.Peters completing a bonus-point-free 19-7 win over Tylorstown, which gives the table the appearance of a two-horse race with a ten-point gap having opened up.
At the same time, most of the postponed ties in the Swalec Plate were being completed and the Seasiders now know who they’ll be up against in the last 16. At last it’s an away trip, but only a short way up Taff Vale to Division 2E Rhydyfelin. This tie will have to be played on Saturday 20th February, necessitating a rearrangement of the away league fixture at Llandaff originally scheduled.
Next Saturday, Penarth welcome Pentyrch RFC to the Athletic Field and although their opponents have also managed to win their last two league games, they languish in 8th position, fully 23 points behind the leaders.
PENARTH Steve Roberts, Chris Poole, Rhys Lakin, Liam Bevan, James Crothers, James Docherty, Owain George [Andrew Edwards], Richard Merrett, Gary Power, Carwyn Griffiths [David Morgan], James Roach, Jason Allen, Marc Devine [Richard Ball] Aaron Ellis, Geraint Blake
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