The Black and Ambers eventually went down 62-17 as Cardiff ran in nine tries as the Newport defence crumbled.
Cardiff were bolstered by the addition of a number of Cardiff Blues players and had an outstanding back-row of Macauley Cook, Thomas Young and man of the match Rob Copeland but there can be no excuse for the Newport performance.
Newport were hit by injuries – captain Gethin Robinson, centres Dan Robinson and Adam Davies all went off but some woeful tackling, decision making and poor execution of the basics all helped Cardiff to play them off the field.
The game was just a minute old when Cardiff cut through to put captain Shaun Powell over. The reliable Gareth Davies converted and then kicked a penalty to give his side a 10-0 lead. From here on in it was one way traffic as time and time again Cardiff cut Newport to pieces.
Tries came from scrum-half Rob Lewis, full-back Dan Fish, lock Nick White and centre Richard Smith. Davies added four conversions and a penalty for a half-time score of 36-3. The visitors’ only response was a Scott Sneddon penalty.
After the restart Newport replacement wing Will Hodnett, making his debut for the club, evaded several tacklers to score a neat try. Sneddon’s conversion made the score 36-10 but normal service was soon resumed as Cardiff ran in four further tries from Rob Lewis and Copeland with Cook adding a brace.
To the credit of some of the Newport players continued to play and this resulted in an excellent try from winger Elliot Frewen who went over under the posts on the whistle.
