With third place up for grabs, his Merthyr side got their noses in front only to be pipped by a point by a late penalty from Aled Thomas in a game of 87 points and 13 tries against Aberavon.
McIntosh is heading to Brecon this summer as their new Director of Rugby, but he was hoping to sign-off with a win after considerable success during his time in charge of The Ironmen.
An eventful first half included eight tries, a red and a yellow card. Aberavon skipper Joe Tomalin-Reeves received his marching order and opposite number Craig Locke a yellow card for a fracas on the half hour mark.
Aberavon got off to a flyer and scored two identical tries after kicks to the corner. From the driving line outs Luke Davies and Cori Lewis-Jenkins scored and Dan Edwards marked his 19th birthday with the conversions.
Merthyr hit back just two minutes later as Arron Pinches collected a loose ball to score their first try of the afternoon, which was duly converted by Gareth Thompson.
Aberavon then scored their third, kicking to the try line, where Cori Lewis-Jenkins jumped higher than two Merthyr defenders, landed on his back and turned over to dot down for his second try.
This was followed by a Iwan Temblett try, improved by Edwards, to make it 26 pints in 20 minutes for on on-fire Wizards.
Merthyr hit back within four minutes to add their second and third tries, through Tom Daley and Sam Jones, to make it seven tries in the game before the 30 minute mark.
The flair up between he two skippers than added extra spice to the game and Aberavon weren’t finished just yet. Before the break they added a fifth try from Aled Rees, once again converted by Edwards, to give them a 33-19 interval lead.
Aberavon picked up where they left off at the start of the second half as Ashton Evans scored their sixth try. However, a spirited Merthyr comeback with two converted tries from Jones and Locke, both converted by Gareth Thompson, cut the gap to a mere five points.
Aled Thomas edged the visitors further ahead with a penalty before Merthyr closed the gap to three points through Pinches’ second try of the game. That meant there was still all to play for with seven minutes to go.
Jones’ hat-trick try for Merthyr put them ahead for the first time, but Thompson couldn’t add the extras. Thomas then bisected the posts with a penalty three minutes from time to put Aberavon back in front before Thompson had the chance to win the game.
It was his chance for redemption for some earlier misses, but he couldn’t take the chance and Aberavon held on for an amazing win in an amazing game.
