Silver lining to a great season for Rhydyfelin Local rugby

PENALLTA added the Worthington Mid District Cup to the National Plate they won at the Principality Stadium last month as they convincingly defeated an out-of-sorts Bedlinog at Pontypridd’s Sardis Road, writes Howard Evans.

Fly-half Joseph Scrivens, who had gone home to Penallta after a spell at Bridgend, kicked 21 points after succeeding with eight of his 11 attempts at goal.

It was a game that early on looked as if Bedlinog would compete strongly and they led at 5-3, 12-10 and again at 15-13, but they went totally off the boil and went 52 minutes without scoring until a try in the last seconds of the game.

Penallta’s tackling was splendid throughout and their front row of Matt Angel, Greg Haines and Lloyd Bridges stood out along with number eight Max George and the hard-tackling centres Lewis Barnett and Matt Brewer.

Bedlinog, with former Bedwas flyhalf Iain Smerdon rarely attempting a break, did score a splendid first-half try, but head wounds to Ben Grzesica and flanker Aaron Harris took their GARETH Brown believes Tondu will have an even stronger squad next season as they look to seal back-toback promotions.

Despite falling to Rhydyfelin in the 60th Glamorgan County Silver Ball final, the Waterwheelers cruised to the Two West Central title to go straight back up at the first time of asking. And with that, Brown says the club’s objectives “were achieved”.

“Obviously we are disappointed with losing on Saturday, but the boys put in a very good performance,” he said.

“We came up against a better side on the day, their pack got on top of us a bit and that made it very difficult.

“But in fairness, we achieved our goals of winning the league and going up. Winning the Silver Ball would have been the icing on the cake but it just wasn’t to be.

“It was a really tough game and they just edged it. It was our seventh Silver Ball final, which is a record in itself. And that’s credit to the club and what they’ve achieved.”

And Brown is predicting another strong campaign for Tondu next season, with the squad set to be strengthened.

“There are a few players who have had a season off, for one reason or another, and they’ll be returning next season,” he added.

“We have seven or eight players who are playing for Premiership clubs too. And they will be available for us next season.”

And with Ashton Evans, Joseph Gatt, Cai Lewis, Jake Lewis, Matthew Phillips and Ben Thomas from Bridgend Ravens to pick from, as well as Aberavon’s David Griggs, Tondu are spoilt for choice. toll. Scrivens opened the scoring with a penalty but Bedlinog’s pack stormed over for Harris to be last up. RHYDYFELIN team manager Dylan Phillips was full of praise for Tondu after his side beat the Waterwheelers to claim their first Glamorgan County Silver Ball at Bridgend’s Brewery Field,

In a very closely-contested final, Two West Central champions Tondu made a positive start and crashed over for the opening try through Gareth Lindenburn, with Josh Tatchell kicking over the conversion. Rhydyfelin fought back and got on the scoresheet with Dai Gratton touching down before Tatchell extended Tondu’s lead with a penalty.

But Gratton converted Scott Pritchard’s try right on the stroke of half time to edge the One East winners in front before Josh Hawkins sealed the win with a second-half try. Rhydyfelin produced a stunning defensive performance in the final 15 minutes to hold on to the lead and claim another trophy.

“It was a hard-fought game,” said Phillips.

“Fair play to Tondu, their defence was absolutely awesome.

“We just pinched it in the second half but credit to both sides, it was a great game of rugby. It was a pleasure to watch and I’ve got a lot of admiration for Tondu, who were brilliant.

“But I think we had a bit more of an edge, a bit of extra knowledge and we got there in the end, which was great.”

The Glamorgan County Silver Ball

After 16 minutes George beat several defenders before cleverly sending Barnett over and Scrivens converted. triumph completes a unique league and cup double for Rhydyfelin and caps off a superb season in which they also earned promotion to the National Championship after beating Treorchy 52-37 on aggregate in a two-legged promotion play-off.

Reflecting on what has been a very memorable season for the club, Phillips gave away his secret to success.

“We haven’t paid any money, our motto this year was ‘mates not money.’ But we had belief as well,” he added.

“The boys train together, socialise afterwards, go to the gym in-between

Then came Bedlinog’s best moment, Grzesica punched a hole for Tom Hiscock to put full-back Dan Parry in and training. They just do everything together and it has been a great team effort.

“It’s a different world for us now, we’re going up into the unknown so we’re going to savour the moment for now.

“It’s been a fantastic season, you couldn’t ask for more. It could’ve been a game too far for us because we’ve had the play-off games, which have taken their toll on the players but it’s just absolutely fantastic.”

However, with success comes the spotlight and second row Hawkins, Smerdon converted.

Smerdon struck a penalty either side of two Scrivens kicks before Penallta scored a fine try as skipper Ross Morgan made a break and wing Dan Pearce went in for a try and a 21-15 interval lead.

The second half brought 20 more Penallta points as the Bedlinog ‘Foxes’ dropped the ball on numerous occasions and the Pitmen punished them.

A tremendous run by dual-registered Bedwas scrum-half Luke Crane set up a try for Pearce with Scrivens converting and then just missing with a huge shot from his own half.

After 50 minutes Scrivens did land a penalty before the best try of the night went to Seb Toms, who had only been on the pitch for about 30 seconds.

Scrivens converted and placed his fifth penalty, but right on time it was Penallta’s turn to drop the ball and replacement wing Owain Rees made it to the corner flag with Smerdon placing a mighty conversion.

Captain Morgan, who had a fine game, collected the cup to end the season for two tired sides. who was on the scoresheet in the final, admitted that some of the players have had offers to join other clubs, but he is hoping the players stick together as they prepare for the life in the Championship.

“At the moment, a couple of us have had offers,” he said.

“It’s up to those individual players. I’m hoping the way we have played this season will attract more players to us to improve our squad.

“But I’m hoping this core group of players stick together, and I’m sure we’ll do well.”