Tries from Taylor Davies, Ryan Conbeer, Kallum Evans and Lee Rees plus seven points from the boot of man of the match Tom Prydie was enough to secure a crucial victory for Paul Fisher’s side. All Pontypool could muster was a try from Scot Mathews and 11 points from the boot of Kieran Meek.
The first quarter was a ferocious affair with both sides going hammer and tong at each other. Fisher’s side handed Pontypool a numerical advantage with Chris Long sent to the sin bin for an intentional knock on.
Llanelli were reduced to 14 men for the second time in the half when full back Kallum Evans was sent to the sin bin for intentionally killing the ball on the floor. Pontypool opted to take the three points with Meek putting the Gwent outfit into the lead.
But for all Pontypool’s power up front Llanelli had more firepower out wide and had a try disallowed with Ryan Davis spilling the ball forward as he crossed the line. Meek doubled Pontypool’s lead with a straightforward penalty from in front of the posts.
Conbeer gave Pontypool another fright when he exploded through a gap to run 30 metres only to be denied by a terrific cover tackle by Geraint Walsh. But Llanelli finally got their noses in front on the stroke of half-time with Davies scoring from short-range after a well-worked driving lineout with the conversion from Prydie giving the west Walians a 7-6 lead at the interval.
Pontypool started the second-half strongly and got their noses back in front with Meek nailing another penalty after Tom Price was pinged for not rolling away. But thereafter Llanelli’s class told with Prydie nudging over two further penalties to give them some breathing space.
Llanelli took complete control of the game when a neat grubber kick from Steffan Hughes was gathered by Wales under 20s speedster Conbeer who touched down for a try which Prydie converted. The west Walians put the result beyond doubt with Wales cap Prydie launching a counter attack before offloading to Evans who put Rees clear to run in from 45 metres out.
Pontypool grabbed a late consolation try with former Wales under 20s loose forward Mathews powering his way over from short range. Full back Evans had a late try disallowed for Llanelli due to Prydie’s pass being forward but Fisher’s side were already home and dry.
