The visitors were 17-10 adrift at the break, yet hit their hosts for six in the second half as they took their try tally to eight to bag a massive away try bonus point. Gareth Dare, Gareth Davies and Adam Cullen both crossed twice, while James Howie got another and there was a penalty try.
Josh Prosser landed six conversions as the score in the second half ended 42-6 to Bargoed. Clayton Gullis scored 18 points for Pontypool and David Lewis grabbed a try.
Bargoed are one of three unbeaten teams in the Championship as Ebbw Vale and Newbridge maintained their winning ways. Dan Hammond helped himself to 21 points as he kicked five penalties and converted all three tries in Ebbw Vale’s 36-14 win at Tata Steel, while Newbridge squeezed a 31-30 away win at Narberth.
Trailing 24-0 at half-time, and seemingly all at sea after shipping three first-half tries, the visitors somehow got their heads back together and scored four tries in the second half to steal a maximum five points.
“We weren’t in it in the first-half and then slipped to 30-3 behind. But after a few replacements for both teams we finally managed to get hold of the ball and keep hold of it as well,” said Newbridge director of rugby Andrew Oliver.
“We got better as the game wore on and scored three tries in the final 20 minutes, even though we lost full back Ryan Lee to the sin-bin for 10 minutes. It was pretty nerve-wracking throughout.”
Even though Newbridge got into the lead at 31-30, they still had to watch as Narberth had a final chance to clinch the game with a penalty in the last minute. But there was to be no fairytale ending in a game in which James Russell scored two of the three home tries, converted them all and added three penalties for a match haul of 25 points.
Beddau picked up the fourth away win of Round 3 with their 22-6 victory at Bridgend Athletic, while Glamorgan Wanderers picked up their first win of the campaign with a 21-20 home victory over Blackwood.
A try by replacement hooker Haval Ibrahim from a driving line-out four minutes from time eventually put the Wanderers into the lead in a game in which the visitors had led 17-13 at the break. No 8 Dave Ford and centre Charlie Gittings got first-half tries for Blackwood and centre Charlie Johnson crashed over for the home side.
Ianto Griffiths kept the Wanderers in the hunt with three penalties and a conversion of Johnson’s try, while Josh Steed kicked 10 points for the visitors.
Llanharan outscored Bonymaen by three tries to two in their 19-16 home win, while the students of Cardiff Met kept Whitland anchored to the bottom as they ran out 26-10 victors in a game in which their outside half Mark Cooke kicked 16 points.
