Shaun Connor was delighted to be back in the dugout as Pontypool capped their final home game of the season with an emphatic victory over Beddau.
The 47-year-old has missed a number of games recently thanks to his new role as attack and kicking coach for Wales Women, who performed valiantly in the recent Six Nations campaign.
However, with the tournament now over Connor can turn his focus back to Pooler for the final few games of the season and he was treated to an impressive performance on his return.
Garin Price, Duan Thomas, Morgan Lloyd, Mathew Powell and Pat Lewis all touched down in the first half – four of which were converted by Matthew Jarvis – to secure the bonus point by half time.
Thomas, Huw Anderson, Amosa Nove and Adam Stratton added further tries in the second half with Jarvis, who has now surpassed the 400-point mark for Pooler, and Dai Langdon both kicking two conversions.
“We were very efficient,” said Connor.
“We were a little bit scrappy first half even though we scored five tries.
“We made quite a few errors and didn’t look after the ball well enough, which is credit to Beddau.
“They were very good in the contact area and they turned us over quite a bit in the first half.
“Second half we played better as a group, we spoke at half time about our power game.
“Our forwards are very strong at the moment so it was just about the backs complementing that and making sure we shared the workload.”
Connor admitted he was pleased to be back with the boys after a few weeks away and is already gearing up for the next game in midweek.
“I loved it [being back]. It’s been difficult for me being away for games but the job comes first and I’ve enjoyed that as well," explained Connor.
“It was nice to finally get back to a game and see the boys perform.
“We’ve got them Wednesday at their place. Beddau is always a tough place to go.
“They’ll know a little bit more about us so they’ll probably go into the game a little bit more educated and so will we.
“We can’t change a lot between now and Wednesday because we’ve only got one training session so it’ll be about keeping the boys fresh and making sure we can go there and get a result.
“We’ve got a strong squad for a reason and as coaches we need to make sure we make changes to keep players fresh and for player safety, we can’t have guys going 80 minutes for the next four games in two weeks.
“We just need to make sure we are on top of that.”
A long-awaited promotion to the Indigo Premiership was secured yesterday but Connor insists there is still plenty on the line over the next fortnight.
“The focus is the league title and doing the double but it is also trying to create a little bit of history and finishing the season unbeaten, he continued.
“We’ve got some tough games and we aren’t going to take any of them lightly.”
