Champions Llandovery remain five points clear of Ebbw with two games in hand after hitting RGC for six in a 40-21 victory in north Wales. Aaron Warren scored in each half, with Harri Doel, Kian Abraham, Rhodri Jones and Craig Thomas also scoring for the Drovers – who were 33-7 up at half time. Ioan Hughes kicked four conversions and Jack Maynard one.
Sam Williams also grabbed a try either side of the break for RGC alongside a Dafydd Williams try in the second with all three tries converted by Sam Earl-Jones – but Gogs head coach Ceri Jones admits it was a bad day at the office for them.
“I thought we were in a good place after training this week, but it wasn’t good enough. Llandovery top of the league, champions and if you give them speed of ball then it’s difficult to contain them – and we gave it to them on a plate,” said Jones
Ebbw Vale took out their disappointment of an agonising two-point defeat at Llandovery the previous weekend on bottom of the table Neath as they ran riot 73-5 at Eugene Cross Park. The clinical Steelmen ran in 11 tries, with scrum-half Rory Harries touching down four times.
There were five first half tries to put Ebbw 31-0 to the good at half time with the bonus point already secure, thanks to Morgan Richards, Dylan Bartlett, Ieuan Morris, Ethan Phillips and Harries. Evan Lloyd converted three of them.
A further six tries followed in the second half, including three more for the outstanding Harries, as Jason Strange’s side turned the screw. Joe Franchi, Kieran Meek and Ewan Bowden also got in on the act, while Lloyd added a further four conversions and Meek two. Louis Rees replied with a consolation try for Neath.
Newport won with a bonus point for the fifth match in succession but were made to work hard for their eventual 36-5 win over Carmarthen Quins. The match remained scoreless for the first 30 minutes with second row Josh Skinner’s try breaking the deadlock.
Matt O’Brien’s missed conversion meant Newport held a slender 5-0 lead at the break. Jac Lloyd danced his way through the Quins defence just after the re-start to score a second try for Newport with O’Brien taking care of the extras, before sending over a penalty.
Carmarthen then got a try of their own through Iestyn Gwilliam as they went from one end of the field to the other. Newport’s third try came after 78 minutes with Chay Smith cutting through, converted by O’Brien.
They would go on to secure that all important bonus point after being awarded a penalty try before Oli Andrew went through for try number five almost straight from the re-start, converted by O’Brien.
“There will be some learnings taken from that for us. We probably only played about 10 minutes of tidy accurate rugby and obviously we didn’t set out to go down that route,” said Newport head coach Ty Morris..
“We focused around a big 20 minutes and being really accurate and efficient – and it didn’t happen for us. Credit to Carmarthen, they made a really big fist fight of it and got after us a little bit, particularly around breakdown and we just made too many errors for 60-70 minutes.
“But credit also to my boys, they knew we was really aiming for a bonus-point win, so last 10 minutes ramped it up, the intensity went up and we scored some lovely tries to finish off.”
Cardiff won for the seventh time in their last eight league matches by seeing off Bridgend 38-23 at the Arms Park. Joe Goodchild bagged a brace with Alun Rees, Nathan Hudd and Harrison James also among the scorers for the Blue and Blacks. Arwel Robson kicked five conversions and a penalty.
Chris Williams and Tommy Morgan pulled tries back for Bridgend, both converted by Paul Short, with Jamin Hodgkins sending over three penalties. However, the win was marred by an injury to Cardiff’s Joey Tomlinson, who was stretchered off in the second half after swallowing his tongue
Aberavon scored eight tries as they saw off Swansea 48-13 at the Talbot Athletic Ground. Cameron Lewis, Liam Seaward and Andrew Waite scored first half tries for Aberavon, all converted by James Davies for a 21-13 half time lead.
Jack Rodon and Sam Pailor replied for the Whites with Jacob Symes kicking a penalty. Lewis, Rhys Thomas, Cameron Loveys, Ben Gregory and Jay Baker all crossed for Aberavon after the break. Davies converted Thomas’ try.
