By Zippy
December 18 2006

A review of the action in the Principality Welsh Premiership from Saturday 16th December. Bridgend won at home against leaders Newport and Ponty won away at Swansea. For details read on.

Bridgend 27 Newport 18

The Western Mail

NEWPORT became the latest side to be ousted from top spot, giving second-best to improving Bridgend during a pre-Christmas cracker.

The Ravens turned in one of their most accomplished showings of the season to overturn a 29-11 defeat at Rodney Parade back in September.

And the Black and Ambers could have few complaints in surrendering for a fourth time in a topsy-turvy league this season.

"We lost far too much ball in contact, resulting in little phase play and not enough territory," said Newport coach Ian Hembrow.Ironically, one of the players who caught the eye in the Bridgend midfield was Hembrow's old Maesteg Celtic colleague - centre Leighton Thomas.

Thomas' eye for gaps held the Ravens in good stead, and it should have resulted in Bridgend scoring a try after just five minutes.

Others to thrive on a plentiful supply of possession were quicksilver scrum-half Nicky Griffiths and full-back Gareth David.

While Griffiths is on a development contract with the Ospreys, David showed a recent stay in New Zealand has improved his skills no end.

In the pack, Ospreys lock Mike Powell, No 8 Andrew Williams and hooker Ieuan Dobbs all showed up well, and Ospreys director of rugby Kevin Hopkins no doubt noted their performances.

Last week development officer posts in both Bridgend and Swansea were advertised for the first time, as the Ospreys look towards the long term.

"One of my main tasks is to embrace younger players throughout the region, so that they can identify themselves with the Ospreys," said Hopkins.

"The Principality Premiership is throwing up a fair cross section of youth with levels of fitness improving all the time.

"It has been to Neath's credit that in recent times they have set standards - and now others are aspiring to them."

Bridgend carved out two exceptional tries with centre Roger Davies touching down in the 16th minute to set up a 16-8-interval lead.

Full-back David, who weighed in with 22 points, then settled the issue with a 52nd-minute touchdown after hooker Ieuan Dobbs showed exceptional pace in blowing Newport apart.

That advanced the Ravens into a 24-11 lead, while a fifth David penalty on the hour sealed victory.

Newport failed to secure key field positions when it mattered most, but wing Michael Poole touched down right on time.

But by then Newport had been toppled from the summit.

Bridgend	27 - 18 (16 - 8)	Newport
Tries: David 2		Tries: Williams, Poole
Pens: David 5		Pens: Griffiths 2
Cons: David		Cons: Dixon

Swansea 10 Pontypridd 14

By www.PontypriddRFC.co.uk - Rygbi Pontypridd - Official Website / Y Wefan Swyddogol - The Valleys' Premier Team.

Pontypridd came off the field at St. Helens relieved after a hard fought but deserved win. The final ten minutes seemed like ten hours after Swansea closed to within a single point, but the team hung on to secure a 10-14 win with a Dai Flanagan dropped goal in injury time. The game was keenly contested throughout, and well refereed by Mathew Aplin.

Only one try was scored by each side, but Ponty squandered another four or five chances and Swansea could have got two or three more in the second half. Unfortunately both sides suffered from bad attacks of knock-onitis, and time after time the ball was spilled as the line came in sight.

The game began with the Pontypridd pack under some pressure in the scrums, but after six minutes we worked the ball down to the five metre mark on the town side at the Mumbles end. Swansea were awarded a scrum, and safely won the ball. Scrum half Darren Pittard passed to No. 10 Ricky Williams deep in his dead ball area, but his clearance kick was charged down and grounded by Ryan Harries. The diminutive scrum half was promptly mobbed by the whole team, and thoroughly deserved the accolades for his athletic effort

Full back Nicky Thomas kicked a penalty for Swansea after twenty minutes to take the score to 3-5, but Pontypridd was putting some good moves together and it seemed that another score must come for the visitors. However, two knock-ons with the line beckoning kept Swansea in the game. A Dai Flanagan penalty on the dot of half-time was all we had to show for our pressure, and the teams went in with the score at 3-8.

Five minutes into the second half wing Kristian Baller suffered what looked like a nasty leg injury, and needed the support of two of the Ponty medical team to get off the field. Neil Burnett came on in his place, but little else was happening on the field of play. Then, about 15 minutes into the half, Lawrence Price was taken out late and the Swansea player who was responsible received a yellow card. Dai Flanagan kicked a superb penalty to take Ponty into a 3-11 lead.

At this stage in the game Pontypridd were firmly in charge, although playing most of their rugby between the 22-metre lines and too much of it in our own half. The only highlight was a tremendous run from inside his own half by Damien Welch, which not only took the defence by surprise, but also surprised his own side. He eventually ran out of steam and was caught five metres out, but there was nobody on his shoulder to take the scoring pass.

Ryan Harford came on for Nick Eaves, Chris Dicomidis (welcome back Chris!) for Damien Welch, and Tu Tamarua for an injured Lee Evans. Then, as the game moved into the last quarter, the Swansea midfield suddenly started to find huge gaps in our defence. Two or three times they tore through the middle, only to have scoring passes knocked on. Ponty made a couple more changes, with Leighton Davies coming on for Lee Pearce and newcomer Andrew Jenkins for Ryan Harries.

Pontypridd were now definitely on the back foot, and started to look hurried and even panicky for a while. Eventually Swansea got the try they thoroughly deserved, with lock Daniel Lloyd Jones being driven over from a lineout. A good conversion by Nicky Thomas made it 10-11 with about ten minutes of proper time to go. However, there had been a number of injuries in the second half, and the game seemed to stretch on for ever as far as the anxious Ponty supporters were concerned.

The Pontypridd side started to pull themselves together again, and Tu Tamarua made his usual significant contributions in the loose. Then Dafydd Lockyer stormed through from forty metres out, and only had one man to beat for what would have been the try of the game. Unfortunately he didn’t see the support coming up on his inside, and yet another potential try scoring movement fizzled out.

The sun had long slipped behind Mumbles Head and the floodlights were on when Dai Flanagan came to the relief of his team with another of his last minute dropped goals. So, the game ended with a deserved win for Pontypridd by 10-14, but one that could have slipped away in that long period of injury time. Swansea were a good side, and their performance belied their relatively lowly position in the Principality Premiership.

For Pontypridd, the forwards battled well despite being under pressure in the scrums. The lineouts went well throughout, our mauls were good, and we matched the powerful Swansea eight in the loose. The man of the match was for this writer was Nathan Strong, who tidied up all the bad ball at the back of the scrum, and played his usual ‘Strong’ game in the loose. Ryan Harries did well at the base of the scrum, and new scrum half Andrew Jenkins looked to be a good player in the limited time he had on the park.
The Pontypridd team was:
15. Lawrence Price; 14. Chris Clayton, 13. Gavin Dacey, 12. Dafydd Lockyer, 11. Kristian Baller (rep. Neil Burnett); 10. Dai Flanagan, 9. Ryan Harries (rep. Andrew Jenkins);

1. Nick Eaves (rep. Ryan Harford), 2. Lee Pearce (rep. Leighton Davies), 3. Ian Poley, 4. Damien Welch (rep. Chris Dicomidis), 5. Grant Harrington, 6. Lee Evans (rep. Tu Tamarua), 7. Rhys Shellard, 8. Nathan Strong.

Swansea	10 - 14 (3 - 8)	Pontypridd
Tries: Lloyd-Jones		Tries: Harris
Pens: Thomas		Pens: Flanagan 2
		Drops: Flanagan
Cons: Thomas

Welsh Premiership table

17 December 2006   Team P W D L F A PTS 1 Ebbw Vale 14 9 2 3 291 253 29 2 Llanelli 14 9 1 4 355 260 28 3 Newport 14 9 1 4 361 248 28 4 Pontypridd 14 8 0 6 279 308 24 5 Cardiff 14 7 1 6 342 304 22 6 Aberavon 13 7 1 5 287 283 22 7 Bridgend 14 7 0 7 288 269 21 8 Neath 14 6 2 6 356 286 20 9 Bedwas 14 6 0 8 214 272 18 10 Cross Keys 12 5 1 6 249 241 16 11 Swansea 14 5 0 9 245 329 15 12 Maesteg 13 5 0 8 261 295 15 13 Glamorgan Wanderers 14 4 1 9 306 380 13 14 Llandovery 14 4 0 10 270 376 12