13th December 2008
Blackwood 24 v 7 Penallta
(Half time 17 v 0)
Penallta made the short journey to Blackwood on Saturday hoping to capitilise on the fact that the home side had not played a match since November 1st due to cancellations and the Autumn Internationals. It was however not to be as Blackwood used their bigger forwards and heavy ground conditions to dominate from the outset.
They soon opened the scoring through their winger, latching on to a short pass out of the tackle. This was quickly added to by a further try by their forwards. With the Blackwood pack totally dominating the scrums and Penallta unable to secure any decent lineout ball a big home win seemed on the cards, but captain Dale Powell and Steve Davies put in some big tackles on the dangerous centre pairing of Luke Knight and Gareth Price and disrupted the ruck area to prevent Blackwood gaining further points.
After a period of territorial advantage Kieron Mahoney was sent to the sin bin for over zealous rucking when a Blackwood player was guilty of killing the ball. Blackwood took advantage of the extra man to score a further try just before half time.
The home side started the second half in similar fashion using their big number 8 to charge up the middle followed by slow pick up and drives starving their backs of any ball.
From a typical slow forward movement Penallta ripped the ball clear near to their line and Andre Soroko found James Powell on a great angle splitting the defence and making ground to the half way before releasing Shaun Robson who easily sped passed 2 covering defenders to score a try under the posts converted by Andre Soroko.
With Penalltas forward effort getting stronger any chance of gaining anything out of the match disappeared when a speculative kick was fielded by Lee Thomas close to his line but then strangely lost control of the ball straight into the arms of the Blackwood winger to score the bonus point try for the home side.
Next week Penallta take a break from what is becoming a hard league season to host Division 1 West side Llangennech in the 4th round of the Swalec Cup.
Teamsheet
: James
Powell, Shaun Robson, Steve Davies, Lee Thomas, Karl Rees, Andrew
Jenkins, Andre Soroko
Geraint Thomas, Rhion Hollister, Devin Morgan, Keron Mahoney, James Tucker, Mark Bassett, Dale Powell, Rob Channon
Replacements : Dean Davies, Mark Palmer, Morgan Allen, Scott Bessant, Gareth Watkins
Blackwood teamsheet : Sean Emery, Kristan Perry, Luke Knight, Gareth Price, David James, Chris Wannell, Mark Birkby
David Brake, Andrew Coupe, Adam Coupe, Marc Gwilt, Gareth Short, Craig Nutt, Leigh Murray, Ian Jones – capt
Replacements : Trevor James, Rhys Hallett, Gareth Rusby-Davies, Stuart Vokes, Rhys Morgan, Ryan Lee
Geraint Thomas, Rhion Hollister, Devin Morgan, Keron Mahoney, James Tucker, Mark Bassett, Dale Powell, Rob Channon
Replacements : Dean Davies, Mark Palmer, Morgan Allen, Scott Bessant, Gareth Watkins
Blackwood teamsheet : Sean Emery, Kristan Perry, Luke Knight, Gareth Price, David James, Chris Wannell, Mark Birkby
David Brake, Andrew Coupe, Adam Coupe, Marc Gwilt, Gareth Short, Craig Nutt, Leigh Murray, Ian Jones – capt
Replacements : Trevor James, Rhys Hallett, Gareth Rusby-Davies, Stuart Vokes, Rhys Morgan, Ryan Lee