It has been a strange old season to date at the Sardis Road club and this was a notable bonus-point win over the Wizards with late tries by Joel Raikes and skipper Kristian Parker sealing the 10-27 win for Ponty.
“Aberavon battled all the way to the end, but our boys covered every blade of grass and I couldn’t have asked any more of them – they left everything out there,” said Parker.
“We knew we had a tough afternoon on our hands because Aberavon have one of the best packs in the league – we had to front up and win the collisions. Sometimes our indiscipline let them into the game with penalties at the breakdown.
“There have been a few question marks over our defence this season, and we have been found wanting at times. But today the boys really got off the line and the work we are doing in training is really paying off.”
New recruit Jamie Murphy, who has just joined from Bridgend, scoring 12 points on his club debut. The visitors flew out of the blocks with a break from No8 Joe Miles, the astute Raikes chipped ahead for Murphy to dot down the opening try.
Aberavon responded with their only try of the afternoon through hooker Luke Davies, with outside half Rhys Jones adding the extras to draw level. It didn’t stay that way for long as the impressive Miles broke through the hosts defence once again, found Sion Parry in support and sent him over for Ponty’s second try.
Jones responded with a penalty to leave Aberavon, in second place, trailing 14-10 at the break. The Wizards huffed and buffed throughout the second half, although they couldn’t break down a stubborn Pontypridd defence.
Raikes killed off the contest with Ponty’s third try of the afternoon, as he sniped through and scored from 15 meters out.
