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27 September 2016 / Club News

Poor display for First XV at Penygraig

The senior team made a long trip up to the Rhondda and Penygraig RFC partly due to a slow bus that was struggling with engine problems and after dropping of the team was taken out of service. Unfortunately, the team appeared to take the same mantle on to the pitch as they too struggled to get out of second gear and produced a performance that is best described as flat.
The home team were the complete opposite starting the game at a fast pace scoring two converted try’s and a couple of penalties before some of the travelling support had even taken their seats in the old stands which grace Graig Park. 
Llantwit attempted to battle back with Damian Gardner-Ponting, Dan Farrell and man of the match Gareth Watts making plenty of aggressive charges into the opposition territory but far too often they were isolated from support and turned over. Even a Penygraig sin-binning failed to turn the tide in Llantwit’s favour and as they tried to force the game nothing seemed to go right with penalty kicks hitting the posts and normally reliable catches going to the floor.
As half time approached there was some cheer for the sizeable travelling supporters when a training ground move in the Penygraig 22 put Callum Manning over in the corner. This was short lived though as Penygraig continued their high tempo game and went into the break with a 24-5 lead.
The second half was no better but to the credit of the players it was not for want of trying. They just couldn’t establish any momentum with what seemed to be every bit of good work being followed by a series of errors. Good runs continued to be spoilt by poor support and several well taken line outs lacking drive and co-ordination to take advantage of. The only success coming from a series of strong scrums deep inside the home 22 leading to an impressive referee awarding a penalty try.
The rest of second half story though was all about Penygraig as they to their credit played very well as a team in playing quick ball as often as they could and making use of a their big wide pitch to run in several good try’s. The match ending at 37-12.
A frustrating day then for Llantwit who it must be said had several first team regular’s missing from their line up and were struggling to field reserves until a postponed game allowed some of the youth team to back them up. However, the feeling from the team and coaches was that this was still an unacceptable performance which they will be keen to put right before the visit of Caerau Ely next Saturday at the Recreation Ground k.o. 2:30pm.

 

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