Pontypridd 12 - Neath 13

By Webmaster
November 30 2002

On Friday night Pontypridd played host to Neath at Sardis Road in the Celtic League quarter finals. The winner of the match would go on to meet either Cardiff or Edinburgh at home in the semi finals of the competition. For a report of the action (or lack of it) read on.

Pontypridd 12 - 13 Neath

The unbeaten run comes to an end

    A poor display all round from both teams in this encounter which Neath came out of with the win and a home tie in the next round. From the start Pontypridd failed to show the exciting and entertaining style of rugby which we have been used to seeing this season and as a result they lost the game.

    The game had little excitement, and opportunities for tries were very rare with the only try being a penalty try scored by Neath after referee Iain Rammage decided that the Pontypridd forwards had deliberately pulled down a rolling maul near to their own line. Before that incident, Pontypridd held a 6 - 0 lead thanks to two penalties from Neil Jenkins which could have been 9 - 0 had he struck a long range effort through the posts.

    At half time, Pontypridd were leading 9 - 7 and many of the 6000 crowd could sense that the match could go either way. As the teams entered the field of play for the second half, there was one notable absentee from the Ponty team. Centre Jonny Bryant was replaced by Shaun James which meant that neither of Pontypridd's first choice centres were on the field.

    In the second half Jenkins struck his fourth penalty before ex-Ponty outside half Lee Jarvis entered the game and struck two penalties of his own to put Neath into the lead by 13 points to 12. Ponty coach Lyn Howells then took a gamble and brought on Ceri Sweeney in place of Neil Jenkins but he could not inspire the home team to score some more points.

    In the dying minutes the Ponty performance was summed up when Sweeney chose to kick a penalty to the corner and failed to find touch and as a result threw away Pontys last opportunity of getting some points which would have given them the lead.

    Overall the game was disappointing from both teams and in the end it was Neath who progress to the semi finals of the Celtic League. Pontypridd will have a lot of work to do in the week before the visit of Leeds to Sardis Road next Saturday if they are to avoid losing another important game.

Scorers

Pontypridd: Jenkins (4 pens)

Neath: Penalty Try, Connor (1 Con), Jarvis (2 pens)

Pontypridd team

Davey, Wyatt, J Lewis, Bryant, E Lewis, N Jenkins, Baber, G Jenkins, Davies (C), Bell, McIntosh, Sidoli, Kelly, Parks, Owen. Relacements used: Sweeney, James, Cockbain, G Lewis.