With the scores tied at 18 apiece with 12 minutes remaining up stepped the former Ospreys playmaker to land a difficult penalty which the hosts never recovered from. Young hooker Morgan McCrae scored a brace of tries for Llanelli, with Ioan Hughes also touching down.
Lee Murphy and Tom Florence scored tries for Bridgend with Jones’ boot proving to be the difference. Elsewhere, in the Premiership Cup’s western conference Llandovery claimed the west Wales bragging rights with a comfortable 21-10 away win over arch-rivals Carmarthen Quins.
Wales under 20s centre Eddie James opened the scoring for Carmarthen Quins as he hit a tremendous line to run in unopposed from 40 metres out. But the Llandovery pack took control of proceedings with Quins unable to cope with their physicality.
Llandovery made slow headway despite some darting runs from Rees but out of the blue a set move from a line out gave flanker Stuart Worrall the chance to feed Rhodri Jones on an angled burst. The centre sliced right through the home defence to make fly half James Garland’s conversion a formality.
The Drovers had their tails up and patient approach work sent prop Harri O’Connor in for a try, converted by Garland. A yellow card for hooker Dafydd Hughes stopped Llandovery momentum and a Batcup penalty brought the Quins to 10-14 at the break.
Play swung back and fore swiftly, Batcup missing a penalty at one end only for Llandovery to score at the other after some breath-taking continuity allowed Garland to score. Aberavon secured a bonus point 27-16 victory over local rivals Swansea in an impressive display of open rugby at the Talbot Athletic Ground.
It was a lightning-fast start for the Wizards as Stef Andrews powered through a tackle from the kick-off and sent Chay Smith racing clear to score within the opening 20 seconds. The visitors gave away another penalty and this time referee Dewi Phillips yellow carded Owen Thomas.
The home side opted for a scrum and the visitors could do nothing to prevent a penalty try on the stroke of half time. Aberavon were quick to find their feet in the second half with a sustained attack on the Whites’ twenty-two and a charge down saw Luke Davies power towards the line, allowing Joe Gage to dive over to score his side’s third try.
A bonus point followed when the Aberavon forwards again made yards at the scrum, which gave their backs an ideal platform to spread play wide for Chris Banfield to score in the corner. Former Ospreys wing Hanno Dirksen scored a consolation try for Swansea.
