Match Report - 17th September 2011
St Joseph's RFC 1st XV 11 v Old Penarthians 1st XV 6 (SWALEC League)
Last weekend the World Cup saw the excitement of Ireland dominating the Australian forwards for a deserved victory and the contentment of a job well done by Wales in defeating the physical Samoans, in a must win game to keep them in with a chance of progressing to the next round. Unfortunately in the same weekend supporters of Old Penarthians 1st XV could find no excitement or contentment from their team’s performance in the away fixture with St Josephs RFC in Division 5SE of the National Leagues. Maybe this should not have been a surprise, as both teams had lost their opening two fixtures, but the game did little to encourage either set of supporters that progress up the division would be anything but slow.
As last week, the side was disrupted before kick off with changes to the selected team. The withdrawal of imminent-father-to-be, Rob Benson, saw the promotion of Gareth Boulton from the second team to undertake the hooking duties. The newly returned holiday maker Gareth Jones also brought home a strain of a Spanish flu bug that meant Simon Davies started at scrum half. Changes to the substitutes saw Steve Thomas, Tom Rogers and Steve Mohring drafted in. All were to get their chances during the match but none could really make an impact, although it was strange to see Steve Mohring appear at hooker rather than at centre where he last played two seasons ago for the club, when he was voted ‘most improved player’ of the year. Fellow front rower, Dean Pratt, happily recovering from his concussion suffered at Cefn Coed the week before, assured all that Steve had previously played at hooker but fellow spectators were not sure if this was a fact or part of Dean’s recovery from memory loss.
Jonathan Crimp was also a late arrival at the Blackweir pitch in Cardiff causing further concern to the team management that their requirements for the players to adhere to a pre-game ‘code of practice’ was already being challenged so early in the season. The coach appreciates that there are times that the players have other commitments but all the players were left under no allusions as to the amount of work that has to be put in to support the captain, Mark Sadler, if the season is to improve.
In fact the players should look no further than their skipper for the type of effort that is required to get the season moving in the right direction. Mark played in his customary position of centre as well as emergency cover for the injured Simon Davies late in the game and was always in the middle of the action. Even his efforts were however eclipsed by the oldest player on the pitch, Dave Mason, who was so wholehearted in his approach that he literally spilt blood for the cause, leaving the field ten minutes from the final whistle with a cut forehead.
Others to try hard in the forwards were James Williams retaining his place as flank forward, and Tony Kemp who made several good tackles. The front row of Lee Brennan, Gareth Boulton and Steve Webber scummaged well to ensure a solid platform but the link between forwards and backs was not effective leading to frustrations in equal measures between the two parts of the team. This was not helped by the absence of any effective set piece ball from the lines-out which left the backline without sufficient ball to run at the opposition. The speed in the back three of Richie Moir, Tom Draper and Lloyd Davey would certainly have threatened their less able opposition but over complication meant opportunities were few.
The opening score of the game came after four minutes when St Josephs’ outside half, Gareth Godridge, kicked a penalty before a reply from Scott McCarthy, when the opposition were penalised for some verbal indiscipline. This score was preserved until half time despite St Josephs playing the last seven minutes of the half with fourteen men after a yellow card was issued for ‘killing’ the ball at a ruck. They also missed a penalty kick form fairly straight in front of the posts for the last action of the first half. The second half was pointless until a penalty each for Godridge and McCarthy on 23 and 27 minutes respectively again evened the score.
The match unfortunately was error strewn and both sides had difficulty in lifting the overall intensity. It was therefore always likely that the winning team would be the one that created the best chance. That chance fell to the St Josephs full back (not hooker), Brian Moore, in the thirty ninth minute of the second period, who took a pass just inside the Old Penarthians half, made an outside break, accelerated through a couple of tackles to score near the posts. The try went unconverted and that left the final score as 11 points to 6 in favour of the home team. During the second half Old Penarthians did have two clear openings when firstly Tom Draper was put through inside his own half to be pulled back by the referee, who indicated that the ball had been passed forward. This decision was probably correct but 10 minutes later another move saw Tim Naylor burst through the St Josephs’ defence on the opposition 22 metre line from a short pass given by McCarthy only to again be called forward by the referee. This decision seemed harsh and with Naylor only having the fullback to beat it was a near certain try. A draw may well have been a true reflection of the game but in the end of the day the Old Penarthians could only claim one bonus point for a losing margin of less than seven points.
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