Match Report - 28th January 2012

Old Penarthians RFC 2nd XV 41 Llanishen 2nds/3rds 5 (Friendly game)

At home, the second XV entertained a Llanishen side made up from their second and third XVs for a friendly fixture.  The end result of 41 points to 5 indicated the home team superiority but Llanishen stuck to their task in the face of a Penarthians team that managed to field thirteen substitutes during the course of the game, thus ensuring that all those that turned up with kit had some playing time.  Those numbers were swollen thanks to the appearance of six Penarth players who were looking for a ‘run out’ on one of their rest weekends of Division 3 league rugby.

In fact one of the main contributors to the scoreline was Alex Thau who scored three tries, perhaps not from the base of the scrum as would be expected for a No 8 but from more open areas of the field where he spent most of the afternoon. Other try scorers were Rhys Thomas, Ben Donovan, Louis Chandler and Steve Thomas.  Thomas also kicked three conversions.

There were strong performances from Callum Wingren at scrum half who formed a very effective half back combination with Thomas and Alex Lewis who ran strongly on the wing.  Others to do well, at opposite ends of their playing experience were Gareth Welford returning (again) at centre and young Alex Holder , son of former Penarth and Old Penarthians player Mark, making his debut for the club as an out-and-out openside flanker showing great potential.