A RAMPANT Pontypridd side ran in six tries in a comfortable victory over Newport at Rodney Parade, writes Paul Hopkins.

The signs were there in the early stages when the visitors’ backs counterattacked at pace with Gary Williams throwing a quick pass to Alex Webber, who sprinted downfield.

He found Joel Raikes in support, but the Black and Ambers’ defence illegally slowed the ball down, allowing Ceri Sweeney to kick his side into the lead.

Webber chased down a well-weighted chip to the corner, but the ball eluded him into touch a metre short of the try line.

Moments later the visitors’ got quick ball out wide for Corey Howells to touch down in the corner. Sweeney converted.

The theme of Newport attacks ending with handling errors continued as Pontypridd were afforded another attack from deep.

Raikes raced through the middle and found Webber, who sprinted clear to score. Sweeney missed the conversion.

Pontypridd dominated the first half up front and earned another scrummaging penalty, which Sweeney converted.

The home side refused to give up though as Matt O’Brien caught the visitors’ defence asleep and took a quick tap penalty to send Tom Pascoe over for a try. O’Brien converted.

The Pontypridd pack demolished the home side at a scrum and Sweeney chipped the penalty to the corner.

The visitors used their backs to great effect and a missed pass sent Howells over for his second try. Sweeney converted.

Moments later the visitors struck again when they injected pace into the backline and superb handling skills saw Alex Knott crash over for a try in the corner. Sweeney converted.

Duan Thomas looked to respond for the home side, but his chip through sailed over the dead ball line.

Seconds later Knott intercepted a pass and raced 50 metres upfield to score under the posts. Sweeney converted.

To further compound Newport’s woes Dan Preece became the first player to collect a yellow card for a dangerous tackle.

And with time almost up Lewis Williams found touch a couple of metres from the Newport line with a penalty and the visitors swept the ball out wide for Howells to slide over for a hat trick. Lewis Williams converted.

Newport: G O’Driscoll; D Thomas, C Smith (H Simons 52), T Pascoe, J Morris; M O’Brien, R James (T Lucas 52); L Smout (D Preece 48), H Palmer (W Evans 48), T Piper (G Harris 52), J Bartlett, D Partridge, M Burgess (R Jenkins 52), K Tayler, M Reed

Scorers: Newport: Tries - T Pascoe; Con - M O’Brien

Pontypridd: G Williams; A Webber, A Knott, D Lockyer (G Davies 64), C Howells; C Sweeney (L Williams 70), J Raikes (S Middlemass 73); C Domachowski (H Owen 55), H Dowden (T Baister 74), M Bosanko (B Warren 64), S Smallman, C Dicomidis (L Evans 55), R Shellard (H Connelly 52), M Sieniawski, S Edwards.

Scorers: Pontypridd: Tries - C Howells (3), A Webber, A Knott (2); Cons - C Sweeney (4), L Williams; Pens: C Sweeney (2)

Newport star man: Mathew Reed