BULLS GO ON THE CHARGE IN EASY WIN
EVERYTHING that could go wrong did go wrong for Ystrad Rhondda as they slumped to a second successive defeat in the Championship Cup final as Bargoed dominated with nine tries.
Their triumph included four tries from speedy wing Ashley Norton, one of which was from a long-range interception, and went some way to making up for their defeat to Neath in the 2022 cup final.
Ystrad player-coach Alex Webber stressed in the build-up that his side had learned the lessons from their defeat to Pontypool a year ago. But there was only going to be one winner after the Bulls blasted into the lead after only three minutes.
And at the heart of everything good that Bargoed did was their 33-year-old wing Norton, who proved unstoppable on the best day of his career.
“I was nervous and excited when I woke up this morning but not even in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I’d score four tries at the Principality Stadium,” he admitted.
“I’m over the moon with that. This was the only thing left I wanted to do on my rugby to-do list, and what a way to do it.
“Our new coach Jack Condy has made a huge difference to the way we are playing and we are thriving on the way he wants us to go about our business.”
Bargoed drew first blood with a penalty from fly-half Josh Prosser and Ystrad’s first disappointment came when full-back Josh Williams thought he had scored following a chip-and-chase off the back of a quickly-taken line-out.
The try was eventually ruled out because the line-out was deemed to have been taken in front of the assistant referee’s mark.
From the resulting scrum, Bargoed extended their lead with a slick move which saw Norton step the final defender to score his first try. Back came Ystrad with a penalty try that saw Bargoed skipper and scrum-half James Leadbetter receive a yellow card for deliberately collapsing the maul.
A second Prosser penalty kept Bargoed’s score ticking over before Norton picked off a midfield pass 70 metres out and then sped to the line to score.
Centre Callum Hones was next to cross the Ystrad line and there was a fourth before the break from prop Keegan Bale, who powered over from close range. Prosser’s fourth conversion meant Bargoed were 34-7 ahead at half-time.
Ystrad came out swinging at the start of the second half and claimed the next score as they worked Webber over in the left corner. But that was as good as it got for them as the rest of the game turned into a procession.
Ollie Andrews made the most of a charge-down by Leadbetter of an attempted clearance and then a Rhys Truelove pass was picked off by opposite number Prosser, who ran in to score from 55 metres.
Norton grabbed his hat-trick before replacement Jordan Howells crossed.
Bargoed full-back Dylan Williams was shown a red card with 10 minutes left after head-on-head contact in a tackle, but it didn’t affect the result as Norton scored his fourth try to finish things off nicely for the Bulls.