Full praise to the home side, who were forced to dig deeper than ever before this season to pick up a 13-10 victory to make it 58 wins in a row in the Championship. Yet on the hour mark a first defeat at Pontypool Park since March, 2017, looked a distinct possibility.
Two Kieran Meek penalties had put Pooler 6-0 up, but the visitors hit back to lead 7-6 at half time thanks to Josh Prosser’s try which was converted by Steffan Jones. Jones extended that lead to 10-6 at the start of the second half.
But proud Pooler refused to be denied and there were scenes of jubilation when Lloyd Lewis collected a pass over the top from Richard Powell to crash over. Meek took care of the extras and while Pontypool extended their remarkable unbeaten run, Bargoed tasted defeat for the first time this season.
After eight straight bonus-point victories Bargoed now trail the champions by 11 points with a game in hand. They host second placed Bedwas in their next outing on 28 December.
Bedwas, who dropped down from the Prmeiership last season with Bargoed, are also 11 points behind the champions but have two games in hand. They thrashed Glamorgan Wanderers 54-5 to make it nine wins from nine and move into second.
Greg Callow and Matthew Williams both went over twice with Craig Hudd, Owain Keane, James Richards and Rory Harries the Wass’ other try scorers. Brad Williams converted seven of the eight tries.
That defeat for the Wanderers saw them slip from fourth to fifth and be overtaken by Cardiff Met, who got the better of Maesteg Quins 47-18. Meanwhile, Cross Keys made it back-to-back wins as four Kieran Hill penalties saw them win 12-7 at bottom club Ystrad Rhondda.
A hat-trick from Roy Osborne inspired Narberth to a 44-0 victory over Ystalyfera. Joe Hutchings, twice, and Tom Powell also scored for the Otters. Nick Gale kicked the rest.
Neath beat Tata Steel 27-12 thanks to tries from Jacob Blackmore, Liam Tobias, Ben Atkins and James Roberts while a late Cameron Ellis score saw Beddau win 15-10 at Trebanos.
