The physical nature of the contest was evident from the start, with both sets of forwards up at each other, but both sets of backs unable to find fluency in their play. A Newport advance into the home twenty-two enabled their outside half Daniel Griffiths to slot over a penalty. The game was still much of a stalemate, with Ponty drawing level through a penalty kicked by Dai Flanagan with twelve minutes gone.

Ponty now tried to up the tempo of the game, working good angles of attack in midfield. As the ball was fed off the back of a scrum, centre Dafydd Lockyer came up on a burst to cut through for a well taken try, the score converted by Flanagan. The home team were going backwards in the scrums and losing turnover ball under pressure. A break from scrum half Gareth Jones gave Ponty some momentum, only for Newport to launch a counter attack, halted by a try saving ankle tap from home flanker Rhys Shellard. Newport continued to hold the upper hand, their efforts rewarded with a penalty kicked by Daniel Griffiths.

Ponty were still under pressure, but the slide rule line kicking of outside half Flanagan giving them momentum upfield. Spurning a chance to kick for goal, Ponty set up an attacking line out platform , followed up by an effective driving maul which allowed hooker Ben Phillips to claim a try, with the conversion to follow from Flanagan. The home team were showing aggression in the loose to make up for their deficiencies in the set pieces, but conceding another penalty to the boot of Daniel Griffiths. Gaining the favour of referee Gareth Simmonds’ decisions, Newport finished the first half strongly, but Ponty holding on to their advantage of 17 pts to 9.

Ponty made cautious advances into their opponents’ territory as play resumed, and were rewarded with another Dai Flanagan penalty. Trying hard to up the tempo of the game, the home team maintained their momentum with Scott Roberts and Nathan Strong prominent on the charge. Pressure was again turned into points as Dai Flanagan slotted over an opportunist drop goal. The Valley Commandos were now well up to the challenge, harassing their opponents into making mistakes. Newport responded with a phase of concerted pressure, but held at bay by an aggressive Ponty defence and eventually settling for three points from a Daniel Griffiths penalty.

With Gerald Cox on in place of Scott Roberts, Ponty remained pegged back deep in their own half, but conceding further points as Newport moved the ball wide for centre Richard Payne to cut through for a try, converted by Griffiths. The game was now moving into its final quarter, fiercely contested and with the result still in the balance. A charge from Dale McIntosh gave Ponty some much needed momentum upfield, with Dai Flanagan on hand to slot over another penalty. Despite being under continued pressure in the set pieces, and thus disabling their platform to attack, Ponty defied the detiorating weather conditions to attempt to play risk rugby from deep. Winning turnover ball, a race up the wing by Matthew Nuthall gave the home team some impetus in attack. Chris Dicomidis now came on for Grant Harrington as Ponty continued to press forward, a deliberate charge down resulting in a yellow card for Newport centre Rhys Shorney, and Dai Flanagan converting the ensuing penalty for Ponty.

With then minutes left, Ponty retained the upper hand, and once more made the most of their territorial dominance as Flanagan stroked over another well taken penalty. As Adam Powell came off the bench in place of Rhys Shellard, Newport set up a late offensive, but were well marshalled by a tenacious home defence. Further substitutions saw Richard Langmead coming on for Dai Flanagan and Leighton Davies for Lee Evans, as Ponty responded with a big driving maul over the visitors’ line, a touchdown claimed by the industrious Ben Phillips and converted from a wide angle by Langmead.

A late injury time repost from Newport kept up the action until the very end, as prop Gethin Robinson rounded off a concerted attack with a try, converted by Griffiths. An eventful and full blooded top of the table clash ended with Pontypridd claiming a significant home win by 39 pts to 26.

Pontypridd

15.Jason Pocock. 13.Daniel Hitchings. 13.Gavin Dacey. 12.Dafydd Lockyer. 11.Matthew Nuthall. 10.Dai Flanagan (Richard Langmead). 9.Gareth Jones.

1.Scott Roberts (Gerald Cox). 2.Ben Phillips. 3.Ian Poley. 4.Dale McIntosh – cpt. 5.Grant Harrington (Chris Dicomidis). 6.Lee Evans (Leighton Davies). 7.Rhys Shellard (Adam Powell). 8.Nathan Strong.

The Western Mail

IT was the 14th consecutive home win for title contenders Bridgend while a seventh loss took the Quins closer to the relegation zone, writes Mike Walters.

Bridgend felt the Quins slowed the game down, but one thing that both camps were agreed on was the pedantic performance of referee Neil Ballard

Both sides wanted to play an expansive game, even in the wind and drizzle, but the breakdown and set-pieces became a lottery, especially in the second half.

It was a Ravens performance that did not come up to the expectations of head coach Chris Stephens.

"It was the worst first-half performance from a Bridgend side since I have been in charge," he said.

"There was no urgency, no passion and it was lethargic - perhaps it could have been on the back of a loss last week. I'll take today as a win, but we have a lot of work to do."

For Quins director of rugby Ian Jones it was a better display from his struggling side.

"I felt the boys took another step forward in terms of our performance. The first 30 minutes we controlled, but the loss of Simon Daniel was a major blow."