Llandovery made to fight all the way
Premiership round-up
LLANDOVERY remain top of the Premiership following a hard-fought 27-10 victory over Aberavon at Church Bank.
The Drovers were made to scrap every inch of the way but managed to secure a precious bonus point with tries from hooker Taylor Davies, wing Aaron Warren, replacement hooker Craig Thomas and a penalty try. Jack Maynard landed a conversion and a penalty.
Aberavon gave a good account of themselves despite a start which saw three yellow cards in just 12 minutes – for centre Callum Carson, hooker Cameron Lewis and wing Chris Banfield – as Llandovery moved into a 19-3 lead.
The Aberavon pack competed aggressively at the breakdown and restricted Llandovery in the second half to a Maynard penalty and a try from Craig Thomas.
Ebbw Vale charged into second place in the table, five points behind the reigning champions, with a 54-24 hammering of strugglers Carmarthen Quins at Eugene Cross Park.
No.8 Alex Howes and scrum-half Rory Harries each touched down twice as they turned on the power. Wing Carrick McDonough, lock Curtis Gregory, Harry Drane and hooker Rhys Francis got their other tries with No.10 Evan Lloyd landing five conversions, and Kieran Meek another.
Cardiff rocketed to a 45-20 victory against Merthyr at The Wern to climb to fifth with wing Dewi Cross getting two tries while full-back Jacob Beetham was immaculate with the boot as he racked up a 15-point haul.
Beetham and hooker Efan Daniel had swapped facing Toulouse in the Champions Cup a week ago for the Premiership.
The Blue and Blacks led 17-8 at the end of the first but saw off their rivals in the Glamorgan derby with outside-half
Jacob Lloyd and flanker Nathan Hudd, the latter's effort bagging a precious bonus point, scoring. Former Merthyr centre Aaron Pinches and Kodie Stone also went over.
A first-half brace from Joel Raikes ensured a fourth win in a row for Pontypridd with a comfortable 29-17 success over RGC at Sardis Road.
The scrum-half was joined on the scoresheet by Ryan Wilkins and Aled Ward, with Arthur Lennon and Pedr Jones scoring for RGC. The visitors replied with their only score of the afternoon a few minutes later as outside-half Lennon pounced on an error.
Raikes crossed for his second try after a break from full-back Josh Phillips and set up their third for centre Ryan Wilkins to score out wide. RGC started the second half with a penalty from Sam Earl-Jones before blindside flanker Ward secured a bonus point for the home side.
Swansea got the better of bottom of the table Neath 27-22 at The Gnoll in a dramatic west Wales derby. The All Whites had to work hard to deny the home side a Premiership win of the campaign.
Outside-half Steff Williams put Neath into a six-point lead with backto-back penalties but Swansea hit back with tries from scrum-half Gareth Rees and hooker Owen Thomas. Rhys Jones converted both and added a penalty for a 17-9 lead at the end of the first half, Williams having stroked over a third penalty for Neath.
Jones slotted a penalty for Swansea but a couple of yellow cards allowed Neath back in with Williams kicking his fourth successful penalty and converting centre Kris-tian Jones' try. But Swansea regained their composure with Thomas getting his second try, converted by substitute Keillen Cullen. Neath bagged a losing bonus point when Williams put over a fifth penalty Newport got back to winning ways with a 57-27 triumph over Bridgend Ravens at the Brewery Field in a hugely entertaining clash.
Bridgend led 10-0 midway through the firsthalf, but the first of Elliot Frewen's hat-trick of tries got the visitors on the board. Ben Roach's try was the first of four changes of the lead in the closing 10 minutes of the first half.
The tries continued to flow in the second half as Newport went into overdrive. Matt O'Brien sent Frewen in with a superb pass to secure the try bonus point, and the outside-half then off-loaded to Ioan Davies, who sent Oli Andrew in. Jonny Morris was next on the score sheet with Oli Andrew and Frewen completing try hat-tricks.
