PRINCIPALITY PREMIERSHIP ROUND UP
31-year-old Thomas won the first of his nine caps from the Scarlets, but he was in no mood to play the old pals act. Instead, he kicked three first-half penalties to nurse his side through a difficult period after their back row man Dave Tovey was sent off for using his head after 27 minutes and give them a 14-3 interval lead.
Scott Horner grabbed the first of four home tries after 12 minutes and the only response from the visitors, who featured Chris Wyatt in their pack and the 22 stone Martyn Madden among their replacements, was an injury time penalty from Mike Hook.
Three more tries flowed in the second half, one from the replacement scrum half James Ireland. Last season’s Wales U21 Grand Slam scrum half, Ireland played for 20 minutes as he took the first steps back to playing after undergoing knee surgery in the summer. Victory took Keys level on try count with Aberavon, but their superior points quotient enabled them to leapfrog the Wizards and take over at the top on a day when all five unbeaten sides maintained their unbeaten records.
Former table toppers Aberavon had to come from behind at home to beat Bedwas 35-24, while Bridgend piled on the agony for Cardiff as they triumphed 24-20 at the Arms Park.
Pontypridd ran in five tries, two from scrum half Wayne Evans, in a 34-7 win that inflicted a third successive defeat on last season’s First Division champions Maesteg and Newport were 30-15 winners at home over Carmarthen Quins.
Aberavon had the trusty boot of outside half Jamie Davies to thank for getting out of jail against battling Bedwas. He kicked six penalties and a conversion for a match tally of 20 points, while Paul Morgan, Richard Carter and Richard Morris crossed for tries.
Bridgend overcame an early storm at the Arms Park, where they found themselves 14-3 in arrears after tries by Chris Stamatakis and Elgan Jones, before finally coming good. By half-time they had turned that 11 point deficit into a 10 point lead with 21 unanswered points. They came in the shape of tries from Andrew Joy, Mark Roper and Chris Tossell and nine points from the boot of Gareth David. Cardiff had enough possession to win two games, but were once again unable to turn their superiority into points. All they could manage in the second half were two penalties from Chris Anderson.
Newport also made it three out of three after falling behind by 10 points at home to Carmarthen Quins. Emyr Jones’ 99th try for the Quins gave the visitors a shock lead and they were still in touch at the break despite conceding tries to Richard Payne and Gareth Chapman. But after the break Newport got into the groove and steamed away to run out 30-15 winners. The only problem for the Rodney Parade club came after the match when they learned scrum-half Alex Walker had fractured his collar bone.
Pontypool got their first win of the season, 32-13 at home against Llandovery, while reigning champions Neath were given a shock or two at The Gnoll before beating newly promoted Glamorgan Wanderers 15-10. Player coach Patrick Horgan, lock Martin Morgan and centre Aled Bevan grabbed the Neath tries.
