Fixture

Penallta saw off Nelson and gained a bonus point in their New Year derby, but not without discomfort at the end.

As expected, their top-of-the-table superiority counted for little in terms of the scoreline as Nelson strove during the final twenty minutes for a losing bonus point, and for a few breathless seconds prior to a conversion being missed, even the shock of a full victory.

Anybody who left the game three quarters of the way through would never have expected Nelson to be chasing down a win at the end. At that point, Penallta were dominant, scoring two early second half tries to secure their bonus point and extend their lead to 23-3.

Having scored four tries and being the more threatening side for an hour with the ball in hand, Penallta should’ve put Nelson out of sight and made light work of the final quarter; taking the opportunity to rest boys before next week’s crucial league game at Glamorgan Wanderers. They couldn’t do that and had to scrap till the death because of sloppiness, missed kicks and loss of focus. All four of Penallta’s tries went unconverted, including two directly in front of the posts. A straight penalty was also missed by Joe Scrivens, who will likely be contacted by the RSPB, so fuzzy was his radar. It nearly proved extremely costly.

In total 11 points went begging with the boot and any two of those would’ve extended Penallta’s lead beyond three converted scores and given Nelson nothing to play for. As it turned out, Nelson responded with two late tries, the first a superb effort by Nelson’s classy full-back Kurt Clabby - well converted by Paul Emmanuelli - and the second a charge down from an attempted Andre Soroko clearance, gathered up by James Spears for a try. If Emmanuelli had managed to convert the second try and put Nelson within six points then a comeback win was well and truly on. It might not have felt possible given Penallta’s early sound ball retention and Nelson’s lack of cutting edge behind, but Penallta had only themselves to blame for the serious spot of bother, and the what ifs would’ve amounted to a very painful way to end a long unbeaten run.

Nelson smelt blood and played very well during the final twenty minutes, with captain Joel Knott, a converted open-side for the day, working wonders for his side. They eventually came up short and came away with nothing, but with regular flankers Alex Herbert and Scotty Horton missing, and powerful centre Ieuan Morris pulling out on the day - a loss which forced the Nelson coaches into midfield changes - Nelson will feel fairly happy with how things went, and confident of causing an upset in the return tie at home.

Penallta’s stand out player was open-side Rhys Fitzgerald, with scrum half Aeron Bidgood - despite being stricken with the flu - also playing very well and bagging himself another brace of excellently taken tries. Fitzgerald is in his first senior season and what a magnificent find he is. Brutal in defence, powerful in attack and seemingly tireless in work-rate, he has been superb throughout this season and is putting together a very fearsome back-row partnership with Rhys Stephens and Luke Purnell. He was excellent yesterday and unlucky not to get on the scoresheet. He and Bidgood, also in his first senior season, have been consistently excellent for Penallta, proving that rugby - despite the sterling efforts of Nelson’s Baxi and Difford, who fly the flag for the plus-forties unbelievably well - is now very much a young man’s sport.

Bidgood scored Penallta’s first try on the half hour mark to cancel out Emanuelli’s early penalty, sniping over from close in. Emanuelli had found himself the blunt full-stop to a period of opportunity for Nelson just prior to the try when he was man-and-balled in a monster hit from Penallta wing Gareth Edwards. It’s becoming an Eddie speciality and the hit began a golden twenty-five minute period for the home side, either side of the break. First came Bidgood’s try and then Scrivens kicked a penalty before Penallta scored their best team try through centre Andrew Jenkins. Jenkins had a very good game in midfield, looking sharp and creative and constantly threatening. He contrasts well with his centre partner Jonny Wright, who was direct and a big handful for the Nelson defenders. Wright was unfortunate to be sin-binned before half time for a marginal block on Nelson’s Aron Humphries. He’ll feel especially hard-done-by considering he was temporarily knocked unconscious by Liam Williams head-high hit midway through the first half. A hit for which Williams received no punishment.

After numerous phases of possession, including good carries from Martyn Dunn  and second rows Rhys Spanswick - who was big and powerful in his running all game - and Geraint Thomas, Jenkins eventually found himself on the end of Jonny Wrights well-timed pass to fly in at the corner.

The second half began with Penallta 13-3 in the lead. And the first ten minutes of the second half were very one sided. Penallta’s forwards, who put in another mature performance and were let down by the inability of the kickers to put the game to bed earlier, scored from a lineout. It was business as usual for the consistent pack, Gregg Haines found Geraint Thomas and a big drive led to a try from new Dad Kieran Mahoney. Mahoney looked too tired from sleepless nights and a day of scrummaging against evergreen John Difford to celebrate with his customary worm, but he does love scoring a try. Bidgood bagged the bonus point with his second try from another unopposed snipe to touch down under the posts. Jonny missed the conversion this time, catching Scrivens’s threat-to-wildlife kicking flu, with a sliced effort which led to a lot of bemused head shaking.

The miss kept Nelson in with a chance and they played fluently after that, trying hard to gain something from the game. They came closer than was comfortable for Penallta and the Penallta coaches will know that another flagrant lack of maturity when kicking - from hand or floor - next week, will lead to a loss against the high-flying Wanderers. However, after the disturbance of the Christmas break the home coaching staff will be delighted to take the five points, especially amid the intensity of such a fierce local derby. They’ll know that victory next week, at the midway point of the season, will put Penallta past fifty points in the league. It will also put Penallta in the position of having played and won away to their main title challengers and put us very firmly in the driving seat going into the second half of the season.

The game was played in front of a huge crowd and to see the whole field and the stands ringed with supporters is a great advert for grassroots rugby. Nelson always bring an admirable army of support and everybody was treated to a tense, close game of derby rugby, played in good spirit. Spirits which continued long into the night at the clubhouse as the Penallta and Nelson followers enjoyed an evening of entertainment together.