First round cup exit for Ponty

Pontypridd suffered the huge disappointment of bowing out of the National Cup in the first round of the competition, going down to defeat by 21pts to 16 at Cross Keys on Saturday 6th January.

The club’s renown cup pedigree made the early exit all the more galling, the first time since 2008 that Pontypridd have not reached at least the semi-final round. On that occasion it was a sixth round defeat, again to Cross Keys, that saw Ponty bow out before the quarter final draw.

A record of twelve final appearances, five of those as winners, has stamped Pontypridd’s name on the competition as well as on the cup itself so many times. Whilst all that is history, the 2018 first round defeat at Pandy Park was all the harder to swallow.

Offering a reaction to the result, Pontypridd team manager Dan Godfrey said: “Its a massive disappointment for us, to have our cup run cut short like this.

“We did well to get on level terms at 16pts all into the final stages of the match but then it was a combination of our own naivety, and the rub of the green, the bounce of the ball going against us, that let our opponents back into the game. That’s what cup rugby is all about, and it wasn’t to be our day.”

Try scoring lock Chris Dicomidis shared his team manager’s grief. “Going out of the competition in the very first round is a setback” said Dicomidis. “We take our hats off to Cross Keys who took their chances well, but we gifted them a sixteen point start, and after we clawed our way back into contention, we let them back in again.

“Its all about game management and there are no second chances in a one-off cup tie like this.”