It was a memorable weekend for centre Pat Lewis as he marked his 50th appearance with a try as Pontypool RFC ran riot at the Memorial Ground.
Pooler turned on the style against Glamorgan Wanderers RFC to run in eight tries to keep their perfect league record intact.
Having seen Mike Herbert and Ieuan Jones reach the half-century landmark in recent weeks it was Lewis’ turn to celebrate the milestone, and his teammates helped mark it with a scintillating display.
Luke Fleming-Jones and Ashley Sweet both bagged braces and were followed over the line by Huw Anderson, Dan Babos, Joel Mahoney and Lewis while Matthew Jarvis produced a superb kicking display with 14 points.
And Lewis admitted getting the win made the day extra special.
“It’s a great feeling, it’s the first club I played senior rugby for outside of Penallta so to hit 50, even if it is a couple of years later than I would have like it to be due to COVID, it’s a proud feeling,” he said.
“It’s a massive honour with all the greats that have come before but any club that prides itself on the values that Pontypool does, it’s an honour to achieve it with them.
“After last week there were a lot of questions asked of us on Tuesday and Thursday but we’ve definitely answered them today.
“It was great to put the wrongs right from last Saturday.
“I’m always happy to get on the scoreboard but the result and performance are the main things, my try is just a little bonus.”
The squad have next weekend off before welcoming title rivals Bargoed RFC to Pontypool Park on 12th November but Lewis believes the win over the Wands is a massive confidence booster ahead of that clash.
“We’ve still got little things to work on where we get a little tired towards the 70th minute when our shape falls a bit or because we have played the game at a high tempo but we are well on the way to where we should be just in time for the game in two weeks’ time,” continued the 24-year-old.
“We’ve played a lot of rugby so far already so it’s nice to take a backward step maybe for one session and then be firing on all cylinders in two weeks’ time.”
