Garin Price was at the double as Pontypool RFC recorded an impressive victory over Bedwas RFC and the lock showered praise on his teammates as they got back to winning ways.
Price bagged the opening try of the afternoon after Matthew Jarvis and Matt Bancroft had traded penalties. Jarvis added the conversion to give Pooler a slender half-time advantage.
Pontypool came out in the second half and blew the Wass away with tries from Adam Stratton, Price and Cameron Regan – in the dying minutes.
Outside-half Jarvis was in inspired form as he notched all the conversions as well as another penalty while replacement Kieran Meek fired over a fantastic long-range drop goal.
Price’s brace doubled his try tally to four in seven games since his summer switch but the former Newport RFC man insisted the whole team was “outstanding” as they buried the disappointment of last weekend.
“It’s nice to get back to winning ways,” said Price.
“It was a horrible game last week against Bargoed RFC, we were second best to everything but I think we redeemed ourselves.
“At the start of the week it was all about clarity on roles and Leighton [Jones] questioned if we wanted to be here so we knew coming in to this game that we couldn’t be second best, we had to be there and from one to 20 we all turned up, gave it our all and got the result.
“We knew coming into the game Bedwas were second. They were going to turn up and, especially after the result last week, expect a win.
“But at Pontypool Park there’s never an easy game, we give teams a headache and it’s nice to keep the home run going. We haven’t been beaten at home for a couple of years now.”
The victory stretched the club’s unbeaten home run to 45 games but it was a superb second-half performance that saw Pooler cruise to victory after an evenly matched opening 40 minutes.
“Them going for the posts going into half time was a win for us and we were riding on that in the changing room,” continued Price.
“We knew we couldn’t be complacent coming back out because Bedwas are a very good outfit and they could have turned it around in the second half.
“But we stuck to our guns, we came out like it was 3-0 to them and came away with the win.
“To be fair they didn’t give in but I think a bit of fatigue came in. Their mindset was there but our physicality dominated them.
“People are starting to doubt is. Two losses this season and a lot of teams are starting to doubt us and are going to challenge us but we’ve just got to keep riding like we are.”
