Pooler blow Swansea away in the wind at St Helen’s

Pontypool’s impressive second half display in their Super Rygbi Cymru encounter with Swansea at St Helen’s on Thursday in front of the S4C Clic cameras gained them six league points for the first time, with the new league points system – four points for the win, one bonus point for scoring four tries or more and one bonus point for winning by 15 points or more, writes Ray Ruddick. This was Pooler’s biggest-ever winning margin against Swansea and their second highest score against the All Whites, just two points behind the 45-29 victory at St Helen's on 10 December 2005.

Pontypool, in their changed strip of predominately black, kicked off attacking the cricket end of the ground on a fine, dry and mild but windy evening with Pontypool playing into a strong breeze in the first half. In the sixth minute a lovely break by visiting scrum half Morgan Lloyd took play into the All Whites 22 and he offloaded to Ioan Duggan for the young left wing to beat Swansea’s last defender and score the opening try near the posts. The conversion was kicked by outside half Kieran Meek (0-7). Half way through the first period, Pooler were under pressure with play inside their 22. They were penalised in front of their posts for offside and outside half Josh Phillips slotted the easy kick (3-7).

Two minutes later Pontypool right wing Jordan Thomas was yellow-carded for a high tackle between Pooler’s 22 and 10-metre line. From the resulting penalty and ensuing driving lineout, Swansea’s left wing Brandon Wood scored a try, 10 metres in from the left corner, converted by Josh Phillips to put the home side three points ahead (10-7). With around six minutes left of a close first half, Pooler replied with an unconverted try by hooker Sam Scarfe near the right corner following a powerful driving maul from a lineout. There was no further scoring so Pooler took a slender two-point lead into the interval. Half time score – Swansea 10 Pontypool 12.

Both sides made several changes in the tight third quarter as in the 55^th minute Pooler made three replacements – tight head prop Kelvyn Williams, flanker and captain Mike Herbert and fellow flanker Callum Davies were replaced by Owain James, Scott Matthews and Ryan Jones respectively. Then, seven minutes later Ieuan Jones took over from Joe Davies in the second row and three minutes after that loose head prop Sam Cochrane made way for Kyan Best for the visitors. In the 69^th minute Pontypool were camped near the All Whites line when home centre Sam Matthews was sin-binned for killing the ball. Pooler took a scrum and number eight Morgan Allen forced his way over for a try near the posts. Kieran Meek obliged from the tee (10-19). Pooler then made three more changes with Amosa Nove taking over from centre Pat Lewis, Morgan Lloyd made way for Owain Leonard and Connor Chapman replaced Sam Scarfe.

Pontypool were now dominant and in the 77^th minute Scott Matthews took the ball back from full back Huw Anderson just inside the home 22 and powered over for his side’s bonus-point try to the left of the posts. Kieran Meek added the extras (10-26). In the fourth minute of injury time Swansea were penalised for holding on, near their 22 in front of the uprights and Kieran Meek kicked the goal (10-29). A minute later Scott Matthews broke from just inside his half along the right touchline and passed to Owain Leonard who did well to get the scoring pass to Kieran Meek as he touched down for a try to the left of the posts, and he duly converted (10-36). Then in the 88^th minute and last play, Pontypool had a scrum feed on the half way line and play went left. Kieran Meek took the ball from Owain Leonard and passed to Huw Anderson who made a telling break and he, in turn, passed to the supporting Ryan Jones for the young replacement flanker to score his first try for the club when he touched down 15 metres in from the left corner. Kieran Meek converted to finish with a match haul of 18 points. Final score – Swansea 10 Pontypool 43. Both Morgan Allen and Scott Matthews were quite outstanding for Pooler and Matthews was chosen as player-of-the-match by S4C Clic

This was an outstanding performance by Pooler following on from their superb home victory over high-flying Newport the previous Saturday. Pontypool, with the strong wind behind them, controlled large parts of the second period with most of the play taking place in Swansea’s half. Credit also must go to referee Ben Whitehouse who had a very good game as he communicated well with the players, controlled the game and made good, clear decisions. There is a break in fixtures during the autumn internationals and Pooler’s next Super Rygbi Cymru match will be on Saturday 23 November 2024 when Aberavon will be the welcome visitors to Pontypool Park.

Swansea: Harry Houston, Harvey James, Callum Dodd, Sam Matthews, Brandon Wood (replaced by Marcus Brown), Josh Phillips (replaced by Harri Williams), Iwan Temblett (replaced by Aron Hemmings), Ed Thompson, Jamie Cox, Kian Hire (replaced by Chris Davies), Sam Pailor, Matt Dodd (captain), Joe Greaves, Dan Gemine (replaced by Cai Davies) and Luca Giannini (replaced by Geraint Powell, and Powell was then replaced by Ellis Fackrell, and Fackrell was then replaced by Freddie Chapman).

Pontypool: Huw Anderson, Jordan Thomas, Pat Lewis (replaced by Amosa Nove), Joel Mahoney, Ioan Duggan, Kieran Meek, Morgan Lloyd (replaced by Owain Leonard), Sam Cochrane (replaced by Kyan Best), Sam Scarfe (replaced by Connor Chapman), Kelvyn Williams (replaced by Owain James), Joe Davies (replaced by Ieuan Jones), Dan Hill, Mike Herbert (captain, replaced by Scott Matthews), Callum Davies (replaced by Ryan Jones), and Morgan Allen.