By Alan John
January 18th.
Llandaff North – v – Old Penarthians
Score 7 – 5
I suspect that Old Penarthians have been spying on our matches and realised that, this season, our Pack has been
outstanding, and has dominated other teams.!! The reason for my suspicions is that before ” a ball has been
kicked ” we are presented with UNCONTESTED SCRUMS therefore negating our best weapon !!XXZZ??!!!
From the “kick-off” we attacked and spent some five minutes within their 22 but their defence held firm and they
cleared the ball downfield and on ten minutes they drove hard as a unit and pushed us back over our line. 0 – 5
The remainder of the first half was ” end to end ” with the attacking team being whichever side had the ” put-in” at
the Scrum. We also suffered severe problems at the line-out due to the absence of Elliot with no other person taking
on the role of “jumper”. . Also, we did not appear to ” compete ” on their “throw-in” ?????
We did manage to give them a scare by battering away at their line but their defence held out until half-time.
BUT as I have said before === This NORTH team does NOT GIVE UP
At the start of the second half we saw a decided improvement in the line-out as Ryan came on and at the first of
their throw-ins he almost caught the ball but, at least, did not allow them an easy time in passing the ball out.
At our throw-in we , at last, won some ” clean ball ” giving our Backs time to move the ball out.
During one of our attacks they conceded a Penalty and with quick thinking Jay (B) took a Tap-penalty and passed
the ball direct to ( or perhaps via another pair of hands ) to JACK (G) who then had a BRILLIANT run of 60/70
metres weaving through their defence and scoring under the posts. In the absence of Jordan, who had gone off
injured, up stepped ROONEY to score the conversion, and give us the lead for the first time. 7 – 5
The last ten minutes were ” a bit tasty ” as both sides tried to attain ascendancy with tempers flaring and the odd
accidental fist finding someone’s face, but The North proved the better and could have scored again had Shapps
succeeded with one of his three charges.
Well played lads, I am assured that this was a vast improvement on last week’s performance.
ONWARD AND UPWARD
Alan John
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