With two minutes remaining, Jones stepped up to kick the Gogs into the lead after the Black & Ambers had edged their noses back in front a few minutes earlier. Newport remain seven points clear at the top of the table, but this defeat, their first of the campaign, gave hope to the chasing pack, especially second place Cardiff, who have a game in hand.
Newport drew first blood when Geraint O’Driscoll ran in unopposed from 40 metres out, but RGC hit back when Zach Clow showed tremendous speed to beat three defenders to score in the far right-hand corner.
With the Black & Ambers applying pressure in the RGC 22, Rhys Williams was forced to infringe at the breakdown and was sent to the sin-bin as a punishment. Newport made the most of their numerical advantage when Matthew Powell powered over from short range for their second try.
Matt O’Brien added the extras, and he was soon celebrating again when he hit a superb angle to score his side’s third try almost immediately afterwards. RGC hit straight back when Dion Jones launched a counterattack from deep in his own 22.
The full back released Afon Bagshaw on his outside with Rhys Tudor eventually finishing a well-crafted try, which meant Newport held a 21-15 half time lead.
Newport began the second half with real purpose with their forwards clearly dominating the collisions. They finally broke the Gogs’ resistance when Powell danced his way past four defenders to score Newport’s bonus point try.
But RGC refused to throw in the towel and a superb kick from outstanding full back Jones was gathered by Bagshaw, who touched down for another try which Jones improved. The momentum had now shifted in the favour of RGC, and remarkably they took the lead when Brodie Coughlan touched down from short-range off the back of a powerful driving lineout.
Newport attacked from deep with Jack Wright racing towards the line before getting tap tackled by Jones. As he passed the ball for what he hoped would be a try scoring pass the ball was intentionally knocked on by Bagshaw, who spent the next 10 minutes in the sin-bin.
O’Brien nudged the hosts back ahead with minutes remaining, but there was another twist in the tale with Jones’ last-gasp penalty securing a famous win for the Gogs.
Cardiff’s Mason Grady was the star of the show for the second placed Blue & Blacks as he grabbed a hat-trick of tries in his side’s 41-21 win at Llandovery.
The battle between the two teams who had been knocked-out of the WRU Premiership Cup in the semi-finals a week earlier featured 11 tries in all. Cardiff were dominant in the contact area and too direct and powerful behind the scrum.
Jamie Hill, last game had been for Cardiff against the Emirates Lions at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, ran the show from scrum half for the visitors and Grady and his co-centre max Llewellyn plundered four tries between them.
It was all Cardiff early on and wing James Beal came close to crossing before Llandovery had their own period of pressure. The Drovers turned down two easy penalties in search of a try but eventually took the lead when centre Rhodri Jones cut a great angle to send hooker Craig Thomas steaming over.
James Garland converted and the home side should have gone further ahead, only for No 8 Joe Powell to spill a pass from the mercurial Jones. Full back Cam Winnett’s break then put Cardiff in the ascendancy but the home defence scrambled well despite losing centre Craig Woodall to injury.
Grady then closed the gap with a great solo run from half-way, outstripping all pursuers on his way to the line. The Drovers lost possession in some good attacking areas and Cardiff were quick to counter in the most free-flowing of games.
Dan Fish, playing on the wing, spilled a try scoring pass feet from the line but when Llandovery lost the resulting scrum it gave centre Max Llewellyn the room to slip through at the posts. Luke Scully’s conversion meant the visitors led 12-7 at the break.
That soon became 17-7 after hooker Alun Rees burrowed over from a line out, only for Llandovery wing Tomi Lewis to score a try from a neat cross kick by Garland, who then added the easy extras.
But Cardiff were too strong at the breakdown and too swift behind with centres Grady and Llewellyn combining to cause major problems every time they had the ball. Replacement lock Sean Moore was next to score for Cardiff, with Scully converting.
Skipper Morgan Allen got the bonus point try, Grady grabbed his second and with a Scully conversion it was suddenly 36-14. Lewis clawed one back, Garland converting, but Grady completed his hat-trick to underline his potential.
Pontypridd were forced to withstand a ferocious second half comeback from Llanelli at Sardis Road before moving up to fifth thanks to a 19-13 victory.
Justin Burnell’s side were cruising with half an hour to go having held their visitors scoreless and bagged 13 points. Then came the fightback from the Scarlets, who came close to claiming a significant victory.
It took an outstanding defensive set from Pontypridd on their own try line kept the west Walians at bay to secure all four points for. It was a mightily relieved Ponty coaching team at the final whistle.
It took Pontypridd a mere three minutes to open the scoring. The try started with a cross-kick from Ceri Morris which was gathered by Jac Davies, who then offloaded to Sion Parry for the score.
Jake Lloyd improved the lead with the conversion before adding a further three points from a penalty. Llanelli were struggling to halt Pontypridd’s momentum at this stage and Lloyd added another penalty to allow them to turn around with a 13-0 lead at the interval.
It was off the back of a dominant scrum that Llanelli scored when No 8 Luca Giannini powered over from short range to kick-start their revival. Josh Phillips added the extras and then kicked a penalty to cut the gap to a mere three points.
A further two penalties from Lloyd extended Pontypridd’s lead before three points from the boot of Taliesin Rees brought Llanelli back to within a score. Paul Fisher’s side lay siege to the Ponty try line in the dying stages of this match, but their defence held firm and they somehow managed to keep out the red tide that threatened to engulf them.
Aberavon had a bonus-point in the bag by half-time in their 33-14 home triumph as they stormed to a fifth Premiership win to keep themselves very much in the hunt for a top-four finish.
But the WRU Premiership Cup finalists could only manage one more try in a second half that became more and more fragmented. That left the two teams frustrated and the fans even more so, resulting in a two try, 14-point second half compared to a five try, 33-point first 40.
Back row man Ashton Evans got the home side off to a flyer as within five minutes he crossed the visitor’s line. The conversion was missed, but the Wizards were already in charge.
Centre Chay Smith was next over the Ebbw Vale line as he ran in a try that this time Aled Thomas converted to make it 12-0. Smith was on the scoresheet again 10 minutes later when he grabbed his second try of the afternoon.
Aled Thomas added the extras to make it 19-0 and the visitors were all at sea. They did, however, manage to fight back and score next as Ethan Doyle crossed for a try that Evan Lloyd improved.
But Aberavon improved their position courtesy of a penalty try to give them a 19-point lead at the break. The Wizards started the second half as they had the first with an early try from Joe Gage which was converted by Thomas to extend their lead to 26 points.
However, the home side were left with 14 men after Lloyd Evans was sent to the sin bin after too many infringements. This allowed Ebbw to capitalize and with ten to go Alex Howes crossed over and the conversion from Lloyd was successful.
Swansea head coach Hugh Gustafson couldn’t have been happier with the way his side fought back to snatch a 27-23 victory from the jaws of defeat at the Brewery Field.
In many ways it was pay-back for the extraordinary way that Bridgend that won their WRU Premiership Cup tie at St Helen’s with the now infamous ‘headed try’ from Ed Howley that earned his side a 20-13 victory.
This time it was a last-gasp interception scorer from Whites outside half James Davies that shook things up at the death and gifted the visitors a win that moved them clear of the bottom two in the Indigo Group Premiership table.
Jamie Murphy kicked the home side into the lead, but the visitors responded when Owen Thomas made a break through the middle to help create an overlap try for Harvey James.
Murphy and Davies then exchanged penalty goals before a miscued high kick by Connor Tantum gifted the home side an attacking platform. Morgan Strong got quick ball out of the scrum for Dewi Cross to sprint over for a try at the corner.
Davies added another penalty for the All Whites before Paul Short replied to edge the home team back in front. Bridgend’s second try came from a moment of magic by Rob Dudley-Jones, who burst through a tackle, found Cai Lewis in support and paved the way for Dai Pritchard to cross.
With the last play of the game a horrendous error by Pritchard gifted Swansea an unexpected victory. The former Aberavon scrum half, on as a replacement, threw a horrendous pass under no pressure that was intercepted by Davies.
The Swansea No 10 couldn’t believe his luck and raced to the posts for a try he had no problem in converting to take the win.
