Adrian Garvey may have been missing from the Newport front row since 6 December, but he quickly made up for his six match suspension with one of the tries of the season at Rodney Parade.
A sweeping move begun on half way by Welsh Six Nations squad member Andy Marinos was worked up the right hand touchline by the forwards before Ofisa Tonu’u moved it to the left from the breakdown in the Llanelli 22.
With Shane Howarth lying on the ground injured, Matthew Watkins had to step in at outside half and outside him he found skipper and second row Simon Raiwalui acting as centre.
Even more remarkable was the fact that ex-Springbok prop Garvey, who had figured in the earlier rush up the touchline, was outside his captain and held on to an improvised pass from the Fijian lock before galloping over for a try that brought the 9,188 Rodney Parade crowd to its feet.
With Howarth limping off with knee ligament damage, Jason Strange came on to the field and with his first touch landed the wide angled conversion.
That score, added to a first half try by the rampaging Wales A flanker Jason Forster from the back of a line out, put Newport well in command against a Llanelli side shorn of many of kits star names.
With their Heineken Cup quarter-final at Bath next week looming large, Llanelli picked a shadow side for this game.
Even so, Jenkins’ youngsters did themselves proud on a wet night and the title race is surely not over yet.
Gareth Bowen kicked three penalties for the visitors, while Howarth landed three first half penalties and Strange added one to his second half conversion.
Another great night at Rodney Parade and they are now nine games away from winning their first top flight league title in Wales.
