Pontypridd 36-21 Llandovery

The new season got off to a competitive and entertaining start at Sardis Road, and a winning start for Pontypridd, extending a seventeen month unbeaten run at the “House of Pain”.

The scoreline reflected Ponty’s overall dominance and Llandovery’s ability to retaliate on the counter attack. Given the home team’s arsenal of pace and guile in the back line, it was ironic that their crucial tries all came from close quarter drives.

With Aaron Bramwell having opened the scoring for Ponty with a penalty, Llandovery notched up a try by pacey winger Ifan Evans following a counter from broken play.

The kicking of Bramwell and Cerith Rees kept the scoreboard ticking over, but a crucial score coming for the home team as Rhys Downes burrowed over for a try following a driving maul.

Having just edged the first half contest, Ponty went into the interval holding a 14pts to 8 advantage.

A further exchange of penalties got the second period underway, before a frenetic phase of attack and counter attack saw the game move up a gear. Ponty were by now in the ascendancy, with scrum half Downes an effective trigger for their creative plays.

A strong set piece and a hunger for possession in the loose were the Ponty trademarks, further tries claimed by Chris Dicomidis, Rhys Lloyd and Kristian Baller, all emanating from powerful forward drives.

Despite a late consolation try for Llandovery scored by lock Louie Tonkin, the home team remained well worthy of their bonus point victory following a hard fought encounter.

Pontypridd

15.Matthew Nuthall. 14.Chris Clayton. 13.Adam Thomas. 12.Dafydd Lockyer (Lee Thorne). 11.Lewis Williams. 10.Aaron Bramwell (Dean Gunter). 9.Rhys Downes (Kristian Baller).

1.Sam Hobbs (John Williams). 2.Huw Dowden. 3.Pat Palmer (Ryan Harford). 4.Ryan Savage. 5.Chris Dicomidis (Chris Martenko). 6.Kristian Dacey (Rhys Lloyd). 7.Wayne O’Connor. 8.Nathan Strong – cpt.

“Golden Bob” man of the match – Sam Hobbs