By Webmaster
April 21 2003

Pontypridd did what was asked of them and disposed of Conancht at Sardis Road in what turned out to be a competition between Neil Jenkins and Eric Elwood. For a report of the match read on...

Pontypridd 12 - 9 Connacht

    Pontypridd progressed to the semi finals of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup for the second time in two seasons after disposing of Connacht at Sardis Road. The conditions were poor and the match was far from spectacular but Ponty, through 4 Neil Jenkins penalties, managed to do enough to beat Connacht by 47 - 39 on aggregate.

    Without first choice centre pairing of Parker and Bryant, Ponty opted for the inexperienced pairing of Shaun James and Ceri Sweeney after an impressive performance the previous week but neither could break through the Connacht defence for a try. The Connacht backs also struggled to break through the resilient Ponty defence and so it all came down to who could kick the most penalties - a battle which Neil Jenkins wasn't going to lose.

    In the first quarter Ponty went 6 - 0 up through two Jenkins penalties before Connacht pulled one back thanks to Eric Elwood. Jenkins then restored the lead to six points with another penalty before the end of the half to leave the score at 9 - 3 in Ponty's favour. The gap could have been greater as Ponty dominated the game but just couldn't put a sustained attack together which would have seen them cross the Connacht line.

    In the second half, Jenkins missed an attempt before Eric Elwood reduced the lead to 3 points with a penalty. However Jenkins again edged Ponty in front by six points with another penalty and they looked odds on favourites to progress to the semi's. Connacht however, weren't going to accept defeat easily and Elwood stuck another penalty through the sticks to give his side some hope of overturning the 5 point advantage Ponty brought back with them from Athlone.

    However, that penalty attempt was the last score of the match as Ponty held out all of Connacht's attacks and kept them in their own half in order to prevent them from getting any more opportunities to kick at goal.

    The result means that Ponty will face a trip to Adams Park to face Wasps and Wasps will have to visit the House Of Pain in April in order to see which team will progress to the final.

Pontypridd team: Davey, Wyatt, James, Sweeney, E Lewis, N Jenkins, John, G Jenkins, Davies, Bell, Cockabin (Owen), Sidoli, Parks, O Connor, G Lewis.

Pontypridd scorers: Jenkins (4 pens)

Connacht scorers: Elwood (3 pens)