Match Report - 5th November 2011

St Josephs RFC 1st XV 18 v Old Penarthians RFC 1st XV 10 (SWALEC Bowl)

Last Saturday the Old Penarthians 1st XV made a second visit of the season to Blackweir to play St Josephs RFC.  This time it was in the WRU SWALEC Bowl knock out competition to determine who should progress into the third round of the draw with the eventual hope of playing the final at the Millennium Stadium.  The Bowl competition is open to all teams in divisions 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the WRU National League and for any team with an aspiration of a rewarding day out at the end of the season it is a worthwhile venture.

Unfortunately both teams played as if the opportunity of a match at the Wales National Stadium was nothing more than a dream.  So despite the match being evenly contested, with the result in doubt until the last two minutes of injury time, there were certainly no fireworks to help celebrate the 5th November.

The final score was 18 points to ten in favour of the home team but it again a match that ‘got away’ from Old Penarthians.  There were times during the game where forwards and backs combined well but these were too few and far between, leaving spectators frustrated at the lack of cohesion in the team.  The players do have the ability to perform better than they have in recent weeks and it is that wish to see them play to their potential that leads to the small band of travelling supporters turning up each week.

Coach Jeff Norman and captain Mark Sadler had made some bold selections for the starting XV by prioritising those players who had trained in the week leading up to the match.  This policy was rewarded by the performance of Tom Sidford, who is growing in confidence with each game he plays and is learning the dark arts of the second row once mastered by father Steve.  Other experiments may not have been so successful in this match, but with each training session attended and each match played, experience will be gained and the team will benefit.
In the match, the early exchanges favoured St Josephs and when an Old Pens’ forward was penalised after five minutes for entering the ruck from the side Gareth Price kicked the ‘Joes’ into a three point lead.  Penarthians had an opportunity to level after seven minutes but outside half Tom Draper missed a penalty kick at goal.  Draper did however make amends three minutes later with a drop kick that he somehow ‘spooned’ over the crossbar.

From the kick off a scrum was called in favour or the Old Pens and number 8, Paul Langley picked up and drove forward before releasing Gareth Jones who neatly kicked ahead for St Josephs to concede a five metre scrum.  The action then returned to the other end of the field after some poor tackling and James Coslett was on hand to minor the ball, conceding a five metre scrum to St Josephs.  This led to sustained pressure from the home side but good defensive work by Dave Mason, sometimes less than legally, Gareth Boulton and Taz Rosoman kept the line intact.

From one attacking ruck inside the Penarthians twenty-two the ‘Joes’ played a very smart set move but the blind side winger ran into his own player.  The referee rightly awarded a penalty for obstruction and from under his own posts Jones took a quick tap penalty.  He passed to Draper who handed on to Simon Davies who raced into opposition territory.  An inside pass found Sadler who kicked ahead.  The fast arriving Mason managed to get his foot on the ball in front of the defender and the bouncing ball was picked up by the man who had started the move, Gareth Jones, to score by the posts.  The conversion was added by Draper to give Penarthians the lead on twenty five minutes by ten points to three.

As the half came to an end poor tackling was however becoming a contributory factor in Penarthians not having the ball and St Josephs finished the stronger, firstly when Sadler was sin-binned for pass interference when in an off side position giving Price his second penalty.
Then in the last minute of the half a comedy of errors that saw the ball stay in the field of play when it was easier to kick it over the touch-line.  The ensuing penalty was taken quickly and second row Matthew Cleary was on hand to score the try that was converted by Price to give a half time score of 13 points to ten.

The second half was all but forgettable with most of the action happening between the two twenty-two metre lines with little play near the try lines.  That said there were some useful attacking contributions from Simon Davies and Tim Naylor and good defensive work from Coslett and Langley but it was never enough to give sustained pressure.  Even the introduction of the substitutes could not raise the tempo and when Dave Finlay came on for his debut he became the forty second player to represent the team this season, which somehow exemplifies the lack of continuity that is evident.

In the end St Josephs finished the stronger and in injury time the only points of the second half were scored by flanker Ieuan Matthews to make the final score eighteen points to ten.