THE riot act was probably read twice at Rodney Parade. Once by Simon King, the Aberavon coach, and once by Newport coach Ian Hembrow.

Newport led 17-0 at the break, and King admitted that words were said: "To identify areas in which we had to work."

The Black and Ambers then sensationally saw Aberavon run in three (almost four) tries, with Jamie Davies converting them all and his penalty after 69 minutes meant it had turned to 17-24.

Though replacement Dan Griffiths notched a penalty, Newport's last desperate efforts saw them drop the ball and it was a home loss.

"Our confidence drained from us in that second spell," said the honest Hembrow. "It was unacceptable, and now we have to go to Swansea and that is a tough ask on Saturday. But we lost to Aberavon in the first game of last season at home and came back. We can do it again."

Indeed, last season saw only one loss in the next nine games and that was at Swansea by 33 points, again in a disastrous second half.

King was possibly near the mark when he said: "We all believed we could turn it around, but I don't think the Newport players believed we could."

One of Newport's problems appears to be that they have good fly-halves who have good days and not-so-good days. It is hard to know which one should start the game.

As it was, Newport scored in 80 seconds and both coaches agreed that it was a gift to Nathan Williams, who ran through to put Craig Hill over unopposed.

James Dixon converted and added a penalty and the floodgates looked like opening, but with Dixon off injured for seven minutes, the side went off the boil until Scott Williams threw off a tackle and sent Richard Fussell clear for Dixon to goal.

Aberavon looked a fired-up side after the break, with centre Liam Gadd, full back Marc Bennett and wing Paul Bamsey getting tries and fly-half Jamie Davies converting each one and adding a penalty.

Griffiths hit back with a penalty, but Newport did not really wake up until the last few minutes. They ran and ran in desperation, but handling errors let them down and only a losing bonus point was gained.

Training this week will be interesting, but Hembrow and his men turned it around last season and they are quite capable of doing so again. Swansea are capable of scoring tries, but can also leak them at times.

Newport: L Hathaway, C Young, N Williams (N Wakley 60), S Williams, R Fussell, J Dixon (D Griffiths 23-30,60), M Thomas, D Pattison (capt), A Brown (K Crawford 60), G Robinson, M Workman (A Frampton 79), M Veater, D Ford (R Dale 52), A Coombes, C Hill.

Tries: C Hill, R Fussell; cons - J Dixon 2; pens - J Dixon, D Griffiths.

Aberavon: M Bennett, R Carter, L Gadd, D Ryan, P Bamsey, J Davies, G Hooper, M Harris (N White 67), C Wells (M Breeze 59), A Edwards (P Breeze 59), I Moore (capt) (C Gittins 30), A Fisher, D Thomas, R Morris (S Peters 60), C Davies.

Tries: L Gadd, M Bennett, P Bamsey; cons - J Davies 3; pen - J Davies.

Referee: James Jones (Bridgend).