Both St Peter’s and Mount have not had the best of starts to the season and it was “the Rocks” which came out on top in Roath.
The hosts started the game on the attack but after taking the ball up to the Mount 22, Old Firm wing Ben Pinnock intercepted a pass and got away up to the home 10 metre line where he was dragged down and St Peter’s awarded a penalty. From the kick up to the Mount 22, a long throw over a shortened lineout was caught by a home back who jinked past a last defender and scored near the posts. The conversion made it 7-0 after just 5 minutes.
The Old Firm responded with a good ten minutes of pressure around the St Peter’s 22 and wing Steve Brittain was put away to take play to 10 metres out. It was far better from the Old Firm.
The Mount lineout struggled all afternoon and from a home catch from a Mount throw-in, the ball was moved wide where a half break by the home centre and a pass led to a home back shrugging off two poor high tackles and getting away into the Mount half where a kick up to the Mount line was latched on to by a St Peter’s threequarter for the second try of the day and a 12-0 lead after 21 minutes.
A kick up to the St Peter’s 10 metre line in broken play was run back by “the Rocks” against a disorganised Mount defence and a couple of passes later, a third try was scored near the posts, with the conversion making it 19-0 after 27 minutes. A fourth try and conversion to St Peter’s made it 26-0 after 37 minutes and Mount were looking at a heavy defeat.
But they responded in fine fashion, taking play to “the Rocks” and from a penalty 35 metres out, outside half Hall was pinpoint with his kick to the corner for a lineout. A catch by second row Keillan Mahoney and a drive was finished off with a short pass by scrum half Morgan James to the oncoming Alex Hughes for the centre to power through a tackle and score wide out. Hall converted with a majestic strike to dissect the posts perfectly to make it 26-7.
The Old Firm went back on the attack and from a chip over the home threequarters by outside half Hall, centre Jamie Long gathered the ball to start the Old Firm’s best bit of play in the match, and for that matter, this season, with a long range attack which took the ball through numerous phases and ended with a fine try in the corner to make it 26-12 at half time and give Mount a fighting chance in the second half.
The Old Firm made a good start to the second half and from pressure in the St Peter’s 22, second row Mahoney forced his way through from 10 metres out and what looked like a certain try near the posts was stopped by the ball being lost from his grasp on the try line. The Old Firm were not to be denied though. From a kick out of defence from the 5 metre scrum, wing Iestyn Robins – who was in the play and busy all afternoon and had his best game for Mount – beat a couple of oncoming defenders and split the St Peter’s defence right open, drawing the full back and passing to outside half Hall who was near the touchline, and he passed back inside to scrum half James for him to finish off a superb 50 metre attack and touch down midway out. The conversion was nicely struck over to make it 26-19 and “game-on” after just 7 minutes of the second half.
The game tightened up after that and it proved to be the last scoring chance for Mount, with the home team scoring a converted try and kicking a penalty with a few minutes left to claim a bonus point win.
There’s no game scheduled for next week, Saturday 7 November, due to the Nations cup match between Wales and Japan in Cardiff, kick off 4:40pm.