Pontllanfraith traveled to Old Penarthians for our first and only pre-season game of the 2014/15 season. Old Penarthians had already played two games but despite this Pont started the much stronger of the two teams and after turning over Old Pens soon after kicking off, Tom Haddock (starting at 10 in place of the retired Chris Miles) sliced through the Old Pens defence to put Pont into an early lead. The game remained a fairly tight, even affair but towards the end of the half, a miscomunication at the back of the ruck and a bad bounce allowed the Old Pens winger to race home a long range try to even the scores up at half time.
Pontllanfraiths lack of gametime showed up in the second half as Old Penarthians made the most of some poor tackling to race home another three tries to take the game away from Pont. After several changes in the final 20 minutes Pontllanfraith finished the game as they started, with a try under the post after a quick tap and go penalty saw Mark Counsell brush off a defender and score under the posts.
Final Score: Old Penarthians 27 Pontllanfraith 14
Tries: Tom Haddock, Mark Counsell Conv: Lewis Francis (2)
Despite the result, there were plenty of positives to take from the game in which Pontllanfraiths scrum was impressive and the lineout looked much improved on last season. Also the arrival of Matthew Davis from Blackwood youth means that last years struggle at the Scrum Half position is a distant memory. Shoutouts to Ben Archer and Daniel Garwood for making their Pontllanfraith debuts and Jay Williams who made a successful transition to Prop. Next week the league kicks off with a home fixture against Hartridge. We'll look forward to your support.
1. Ashley Williams 2. Ben Archer 3. Craig Williams 4. Mark Counsell (Try) 5. Adrian Greening 6. Jarrad Hook 7. Chris Kelly 8. Chudd Meyrick-Parker (Capt)
9. Matthew Davis 10. Tom Haddock 11. Lewis Francis 12. Nathan Meyrick 13. Michael Wake 14. Hari Miles 15. Lee Butcher
Subs: Emyr Llewelyn, Jay Williams, Daniel Garwood, Chris Price, Craig Coleman, Rhys Seabourne,
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