Tries from Harley Thompson (two), Craig Locke and Ben Murphy along with nine points from the boots of Matthew Jarvis and Rhys Jones was enough to secure a bonus point victory for the defending champions. Newport scored two tries of their own courtesy of Haydn Simons and Josh Skinner with Matt O’Brien kicking seven points.
The visitors started strongly with outside centre Thompson underneath the cross bar after an initial break by No8 Andrew Murphy with Jarvis adding the extras. And Merthyr captain Locke grabbed their second try when he powered his way over from short range.
But Newport hit back with a contender for try of the season. Full back Elliot Frewen received the ball just outside his own 22 and danced his way past three defenders before accelerating 60 metres downfield. As he approached the line he offloaded to Simons for the try with O’Brien converting from the touchline.
Newport had regained the upper hand and began to apply pressure in the Merthyr 22 allowing O’Brien to put further points on the board with a successful penalty from 40 metres out which took him to over 800 Premiership points.
But Merthyr rallied with a further penalty from Jarvis meaning Newport trailed 17-10 at the interval.
Newport created plenty of opportunities in the early stages of the second-half but a glut of unforced errors undermined their efforts. On one such occasion Frewen had a two man overlap but instead of passing decided to hold onto the ball resulting in a try going begging.
And Merthyr were far more clinical in the opposition 22 with powerful second-row Murphy claiming their third try courtesy of a powerful driving lineout. But Newport finally found their rhythm in attack with James McCarthy slicing the Merthyr defence open before offloading to Skinner for their second try.
And Merthyr secured all five points when Thompson used his footwork to ghost his way past a couple of defenders before barging his way over the line. Jones was successful with the conversion from the touchline to put the result beyond any doubt.
