Their three tries to none, 17-12 victory at the House of Pain moved them up into eighth place and they have two games in hand of a number of the clubs just ahead of them. It was their third win in a row.
Centre Tom Pascoe couldn’t hide his delight after he helped the Black & Ambers overcome his former club. He was a key man alongside the excellent Andrew Mann as Newport inflicted only a second home defeat of the campaign on the hosts with the visitors’ tries coming from Matt Dwyer, Mann and replacement prop Garin Harris.
“It was a really good win. We knew what Pontypridd would bring. We beat them in pre-season, but before this game they had only lost once at home this season,” Pascoe said.
“It’s a big scalp for us to come here and win. We started the season pretty slowly, but we’ve pushed on from there and got a couple of wins on the bounce. Now we need to push on again to the end of the campaign.”
Diggy Bird kicked an early Pontypridd penalty, but Newport hit back when Dwyer was driven over. Two more kicks from Bird put the hosts back in front before the outstanding Mann raced over following Ben Jones’ failure to take a high ball. Matt O’Brien converted.
Pontypridd were poor and didn’t deserve to win as their only points of the second half came from a late Jones penalty. Justin Burnell’s men hadn’t played for five weeks before this game and it showed as they were rusty throughout.
Newport saw wing Elliot Frewen receive two yellow cards. The first was for a high tackle soon after half time and the second – for a deliberate knock on – came with just seconds left. But even that couldn’t stop them winning as Harris was driven over for the game’s crucial try late on following another impressive Newport rolling maul from a line-out.
“It was really good for me to come back to Pontypridd. I loved my time playing here a couple of years ago and there is always a great crowd here. It’s a great place to come,” said Pascoe. “It’s a really good win for the boys and we had to dig in deep to hold on at the end.”
Revenge was sweet for Llandovery as they erased the bitter memory of their last gasp defeat at The Wern earlier in the season with a 17-14 victory in difficult conditions.
It was a triumph that not only avenged that 33-31 reverse, but also allowed them to leapfrog the reigning champions into fourth place in the Indigo Group Premiership table.
“That made it back-to-back, ugly wins for us and it was a pretty happy dressing room in the end. We expect to finish in the top six and now we are climbing the table,” said Llandovery head coach Euros Evans.
“It looks as though results in recent weeks and their win over Bridgend have made it certain that Cardiff will win the title, but we just want to keep on winning to try to finish as high as possible.
“Merthyr may not be the same force they have been in recent seasons, but they still provide every team with a massive challenge up front. With players like Phil Rees and Craig Locke in their side they are a big pack with lots of experience.”
Merthyr prop Chris Phillips did well to prevent home scrum half Lee Rees from opening the scoring, but two minutes later the Drovers hit the front when Craig Woodall put fellow centre Kristian Jones in near enough to the posts for fly half Jack Maynard to add the conversion.
Maynard should have increased the lead with a straight forward penalty with the wind at his back, but his aim was off. He missed a second time as the pressure mounted, but then made it 10-0 with a success at the third time of asking on the stroke of half time.
Llandovery then shocked their visitors at the restart when Kristian Jones made a break in midfield, drew full back Matt Jarvis and sent Rees haring in from 30 yards for a try that Maynard improved to make it 17-0.
A driving line out try from Phillips, converted by Jarvis, got the Ironmen back into the contest and they cut the gap to a single score when centre Arron Pinches punched his way through the middle for a try once again converted by Jarvis five minutes from time.
Aberavon ran in a magnificent seven tries to beat Llanelli 48-18 at Parc Y Scarlets. It was the perfect dress-rehearsal for the Wizards ahead of their top of the table clash with Cardiff this weekend.
“It was important that we bounced back well from last weekend’s defeat and I certainly got a reaction from my players today,” said Aberavon head coach Jason Hyatt.
“We were outstanding and thoroughly deserved to win. What was really impressive was the manner of our win and I thought it was close to being the complete performance.”
Llanelli came out of the blocks firing as outside-centre Bleddyn Davies scored a try within 30 seconds of the game as he took a well-timed pass from wing Eray Wilson to run in unopposed from 25 metres out. Ioan Hughes converted before Thomas opened the Wizards’ account with a successful penalty.
Hughes stretched Llanelli’s lead with another three points before Aberavon’s Chris Banfield showed tremendous pace to touch down at the far right-hand corner. Former Dragons and Scarlets outside-half Aled Thomas was soon celebrating the visitors’ second try as he ghosted past two defenders to score before adding the extras himself.
After a period of pressure in the home sides 22 the referee had no choice but to send full-back Kalum Evans to the sin bin for a professional foul. With a one man advantage the visitors continued where they left as Ospreys scrum-half Reuben Morgan-Williams sniping to touch down for their third try.
Hughes kicked a late penalty for Llanelli meaning the hosts turned around 22-13 behind at the interval. Aberavon continued to pile the pressure on in the early stages of the second-half as they lay siege to the Llanelli try line with powerful hooker Cameron Lewis crashing over from short-range.
The Wizards scrum was also a big weapon as it forced replacement Llanelli tight-head prop Ryan Thomas into the sin bin for repeatedly infringing at the set-piece. To their credit Llanelli refused to throw in the towel and grabbed a try back when second-row Chris Long touched down off the back of a well-worked driving lineout.
But Hyatt’s side responded almost immediately Garland finding himself on the end of a well-constructed team try which he converted himself. Morgan-Williams claimed his second try of the afternoon when he ran in from 40 metres out before Jon Phillips finished the scoring in injury time.
