Pontypridd 10 vs Newport 45

It was a disappointing Thursday night for Pontypridd as they fell to defeat against Newport at Sardis Road.

Five first-half tries from the Black & Ambers set them on their way to victory, before second half scores from Josh Skinner and Iwan Prys Jones capped an impressive away performance.

Newport opened the scoring after 10 minutes with a break from inside centre Chay Foster-Smith who broke through the Ponty defence, a neat offload then saw a deflection off a Black & Amber player to fullback Jac Lloyd who stepped the final defender to score. Matt O’Brien converted for 7-0.

The visitors added a second score in the 22^nd minute when they used the rolling maul to good effect rumbling over the try line, but Gareth Newman couldn’t quite find a grounding. Following a discussion with his assistant, referee Newman awarded the visitors with a penalty-try and gave Pontypridd captain Kristian Parker a yellow card for collapsing the maul.

Ponty did manage to get their first points of the evening in the 25th minute through the boot of Josh Phillips when he kicked a penalty after Newport were penalised for offside.

The visitors added their third try of the first half when winger Frewan crossed in the left hand corner following a looping miss-pass from fly-half O’Brien.

The bonus point was wrapped up after half an hour when Lloyd Lewis finished off a neat Newport play to again score in the corner.

There was still time for a fifth try on the stroke of halftime when Ponty were penalised for sacking the maul, tighthead Tom Harper shown a yellow card as a direct result of this.

A quick tap and go from Josh Reynolds saw the loosehead prop power over from short range. O’Brien’s third conversion of the evening gave the visitors a 31-3 halftime lead.

HALF TIME – Pontypridd 3-31 Newport

The third quarter of the contest yielded no points and despite a yellow card to replacement Newport tighthead Garin Harris, it was the visitors that picked up the next score when lock Josh Skinner burrowed over from short range.

Pontypridd refused to throw the towel in and eventually got their maiden try of the evening when openside flanker Cai James was the first to react and pounced on the loose ball to canter in and score. Ben Burnell added the conversion for what was a consolation score.

But it was the Black & Ambers that had the final say when a Matt O’Brien cross-field kick was on the money for replacement Iwan Prys Jones to gather and dive over for the try.

FULL TIME – Pontypridd 10-45 Newport (29/2/2024)

Match report – Iestyn Thomas

PONTYPRIDD –

15. Josh Phillips (Louis Rochefort-Shugar). 14. Niko Matawalu. 13. Garyn Smith. 12. Kyan Lewis. 11. Tom Edwards. 10. Ben Burnell. 9. Joel Raikes (Harvey Nash).

1. Tom Devine (Ben Stephens). 2. Rob Jones (Curtis Greenslade). 3. Tom Harper (Morgan Bosanko). 4. Mitch Barnard (Joe Miles). 5. Macauley Cook (Chris Dicomidis). 6. Aled Ward (Cally James). 7. Cai James. 8. Kristian Parker (c).

Subs: 16. Curtis Greenslade. 17. Ben Stephens. 18. Morgan Bosanko. 19. Chris Dicomidis. 20. Joe Miles. 21. Cally James. 22. Harvey Nash. 23. Louis Rochefort-Shugar.

Try: Cai James

Conversion: Ben Burnell

Penalty: Josh Phillips

Yellow Cards: Kristian Parker, Tom Harper, Ben Stephens

NEWPORT –

15. Jac Lloyd. 14. Elliot Frewen. 13. Jon Morris. 12. Chay Foster-Smith. 11. Lloyd Lewis. 10. Matt O’Brien. 9. Dafydd Buckland.

1. Josh Reynolds. 2. Henry Palmer. 3. Nathan Evans. 4. Rynard Landman. 5. Josh Skinner. 6. Rhys Jenkins. 7. Josh Reid. 8. Ben Roach (c).

Subs: 16. Wade Langley. 17. Tom Workman. 18. Garin Harris. 19. Elliot Ferriman. 20. Kyle Tayler. 21. Che Hope. 22. Lewis Bates. 23. Iwan Pyrs Jones.

Tries: Jac Lloyd, Penalty-try, Elliot Frewen, Lloyd Lewis, Josh Reynolds, Josh Skinner, Iwan Pyrs Jones

Conversions: Matt O’Brien x 4

Yellow Card: Garin Harris

Referee: Gareth Newman

Assistant referees: 1 – Ben Connor, 2 – Matthew Leon, 3 – Chris Lewis

Golden Bob Man of the Match: Joel Raikes

WRU Man of the Match: Joel Raikes