Ring rustiness meant the first 20 minutes was a stop start affair with both teams making handling errors. However the Whitland pack, led by Sara Davies, settled down and started to win quality ball for their speedy backs to use.
The first try came after a kick ahead resulted in a Whitland scrum. The front five got the drive on and No 8 Beca Norris controlled superbly to touch down.
After some slick interplay amongst the forwards scrum half Emma Summons released her backs and slick hands saw full back and new team captain Catherin Davies give the scoring pass to speedster Richards who dotted down in the corner.
Try number three just before half time was a carbon copy of the second. A strong scrum – where the Whitland front five of Amy Jones, Sara Davies, Cerris Moyle, Zoe Morris and Ali Griffiths dominated all afternoon – provided clean quick ball for the backs with fly half Alice James running affairs she opted to release her outside backs for Richards to score in the corner.
Just before half time Whitland lost winger Elinor Phillips, who left the field after a nasty ankle injury which resulted in a trip to Bridgend General. She was replaced by Allana Jones making her debut and also her first ever game of rugby. She was straight into the action making a searing break up the left wing, but a forward pass resulted in the half time whistle.
The second half started with Whitland under a bit of pressure as Pencoed decided to play some attacking rugby. Centres Natalie Walsh and Elin ap Hywel showing that not only did they have slick hands they could also defend as some bone crunching tackles stopped Pencoed in their tracks.
Live wire flankers Angharad Williams and Lowri Morgan were now dominating the contact area and with the introduction of Ffion Jones, Sara Medeni, Annalise Prosser and Clare Jones they were able to win quality ball for their backs to use and Richards on the wing sprinted in for three more tries to take her tally for the day to five, one of which was from a backs move from their own try line, two of the tries were well converted by Catherine Davies.
Pencoed finished off the game with an un converted penalty try after flanker Williams was judged to have made a high tackle on the try line and was awarded a yellow card. Anneka Hopson also entered the fray to make her debut and contributed to what was a good start to the season.Â
