Hat-trick hero Lloyd praises team's 'fight'

Morgan Lloyd praised the fighting spirit of the team as they recovered from a disappointing first half to claim a credible bonus point against table-topping Llandovery on a cold night at Pontypool Park.

The Indigo Premiership leaders, and reigning champions, were in fine form as they stormed into the lead with three tries in 15 minutes with full-back Jac Davies touching down either side of Kian Abraham scores.

Hooker Sam Scarfe got Pooler up and running before further tries from Aaron Warren, Adam Warren and Abraham extended the Drovers’ lead.

Pontypool emerged after the break with a different approach and it paid dividends early in the second half as scrum-half Lloyd struck twice in two minutes.

Visiting replacement Taylor Davies stemmed the hosts’ momentum with a try of his own before Lloyd completed his hat-trick with a terrific solo effort, feinting a pass by the halfway line before exploiting a gap of space to sprint to the whitewash.

Davies’ grabbed another late on to wrap up proceedings.

After a first half were Pooler were second best, Lloyd felt the players upped their game and gave a better account of themselves in the second period to restore some pride.

“In the first half they started off really well and we got caught a few times ball watching,” explained Lloyd.

“Llandovery are good at spreading the ball wide and playing wide and their offload game is good and they caught us out a few times.

“We had a good chat at half time covering what we needed to do more and with our individual roles we had to do much better.

“Our go-forward ball was much better in the second half, which created those opportunities for us to score those tries.

“They are good at their offload game and it is hard to hold them in as they are relentless in terms of speed of ball.

“During the second half we managed to match that speed of ball, which put us back in the game and got us the bonus point.

“As a team we have a lot of fight in us, we won’t give up and we will keep going and going until the end.

“Llandovery did get a bit tired towards the end and staying together as a team, we were able to create and take those opportunities.

“The boys played for pride in the second half. We realised we were behind so there was nothing to lose. We played more freely as a team.”

Lloyd’s treble-clinching try ensured Pooler picked up a bonus point for their efforts, only for the fourth time this season, and Lloyd believes that could be important come the end of the season.

“It’s a big thing getting a bonus point from this game,” he said.

“There has been a couple of times this season where we’ve just fallen short and I think we could be a couple of positions higher in the league if we had got those bonus points.”