Whites’ winning run ended as Ponty punish ill-discipline

PONTYPRIDD maintained their title push with a bonus-point triumph over Swansea at Sardis Road – a result that ended the Whites’ six-game winning run in the league.

A quick-tap penalty from scrum-half Joel Raikes set up the opening try for centre Alex Knott in the fourth minute, converted by Diggy Bird.

Gareth Rees replied for Swansea on 13 minutes, converted by Josh Thomas, but the visitors were being overpowered by Ponty at scrum time and that led to the hosts’ second try on 26 minutes with Raikes sending Alex Webber away, with Bird again converting.

The hosts then stretched their lead six minutes later when they were awarded a penalty try with Swansea’s Jay Williams sin-binned for collapsing a maul.

Williams returned but things went from bad to worse for Swansea a minute before the break.

Gareth Rees was yellowcarded for a deliberate knock-on and that resulted in Ponty being awarded a second penalty try of the afternoon.

Ben Jones booted a penalty for the hosts eight minutes after the re-start before Swansea were once again reduced to 14 men with Alex Jeffries this time seeing yellow for an infringement in the scrum.

Swansea grabbed late tries through Morgan Morris, converted by Thomas, and then Andrew Claypole but ultimately the damage had been done in the first half and they left empty-handed. Star man Corey Domachowski - Pontypridd