Emergency outside half Rhys Williams dictated proceedings as he ended the 38-10 victory with 18 points as the Whites made it five wins in their last six outings to put clear daylight between themselves and the bottom six sides in the league.
“We still aren’t completely out of the relegation battle, but at least we’ve ended the year able to look upwards, rather than down,” admitted Lancaster.
“The December block of fixtures has been really important for us and now we’ve got a huge few weeks coming up in the New Year as well when we play Bridgend, Neath and Cross Keys. They are games in which we not only get a chance to take points, but also take points off sides below us in the table.
“There is always a lot riding on games against Llanelli given we’ve been playing them for more than 125 years, but we really wanted to try to create some daylight between us and the bottom six sides.”
The Whites’ side showed their attacking intent from the off and Will Griffiths sent fellow lock Jay Williams crashing over for the first of their five tries from a line-out. The Whites’ second score came from a calamitous error at the Llanelli line-out.
Jon Fox picked up at the tail and sent Rhys Williams racing to the posts for a try that he also converted. Declan Smith cut the gap with a penalty after the Llanelli pack drove the home eight off the ball, but Swansea hit back with another try from a close range line-out from No 8 Fox.
Williams maintained his kicking success and also added a penalty to extend the lead to 21 points. Swansea continued to use their driving maul after the break and it earned a yellow card for Llanelli’s Joe Miles when he tried to haul one down.
The visitors gave their hosts a dose of their own medicine when they drove Ellis Thomas over from a close range line-out after Steff Hughes had kicked to the corner. But the bonus point for the home side came from scrum half Matthew Aubrey.
Tom Williams then rounded off proceedings with a superb solo effort. Rhys Williams made it five out of five with the conversion to earn some special praise from his coach.
Merthyr skipper Craig Locke says there is no talk of more silverware at The Wern despite his side ending 2018 sitting on top of the table after a 38-17 triumph at Bargoed.
“We are top of the league going into the New Year and that’s great. We were aiming for top five or top three place, but we are delighted to be top and we’ve worked hard to get there,” said Locke.
“Everyone is out to watch us slip up or to find a chink in our armour. We have put the Cardiff defeat to bed and we’ve had two wins since then.
“Everyone has worked really hard since then and lots of boys have thrown their names into the hat for selection. It is a case of taking one game at a time because anyone can beat anyone on their day in this league.
“We’re not thinking about repeating the double of last season and our focus is simply on the next game up, which is against Aberavon in the cup.”
Locke’s men gave battling Bargoed six of the best as they picked up another full-house of points to throw down the gauntlet to the chasing pack. Now it is over to Cardiff and Pontypridd to fight it out for second place when they meet on New Year’s Day.
Newport came from behind to claim a bonus-point win over Gwent rivals Cross Keys at Pandy Park.
Llywarch ap Myrddin marked his Keys debut in impressive fashion with a try inside three minutes against his former club.
Prop Garin Price was the next to go over and the conversion from former RGC 1404 star Jacob Botica put the hosts into an early 12-0 lead. But the Black & Ambers started to find their feet and hauled themselves back in the game with a terrific try from prolific centre Chay Smith.
The tables then turned as Craig Warlow’s men started to ask the questions and their answer came in the form of a penalty try following several infringements in the scrum. Keys’ response saw them take the lead back with Ellis Shipp forcing his way over and Botica converting.
But it was Newport who held the lead at the break thanks to Elliot Frewen’s converted try on the stroke of half time. Frewen sealed the bonus point with another try after the break and Newport then started to pull away.
Geraint O’Driscoll put his name on the scoresheet with O’Brien converting both tries and adding a penalty in-between. Dylan Fidler then saw yellow for Keys before Chris Williams’ late try sealed the win for Newport.
RGC1404 thrashed Bridgend with a bonus-point victory at Eirias Park to move into the top half of the table. A brace of tries from Danny Cross plus a try apiece from Efan Jones, Evan Yardley and Cam Davies was enough to see off Matt Silva’s side.
Former Wales U20 outside half Billy McBryde also contributed 11 points from the kicking tee to condemn Bridgend to their first defeat in three games. After an early penalty from Cai Evans it was the hosts who grabbed the games first try with Cross finishing a terrific team score which was started after a powerful surge by Karl Martin.
Mark Jones’ side were superior in every aspect of play with Cross the beneficiary of a superb break and offload from Mei Parry for their second try to give them a 17-3 half-time lead. The hosts flexed their muscles in the early stages of the second-half with Jones crossing from short range after the Gogs had annihilated the Bridgend scrum.
Bridgend outside half Jamie Murphy grabbed a try back for the visitors before Yardley secured the bonus point for RGC courtesy of a powerful driving lineout.
Connor Tantum crossed at the far right-hand corner for Bridgend after a quickly taken penalty. But Davies put the final nail in Bridgend’s coffin with a try from 30 metres out.
