Four-star Crocker delivers promotion boost to Neath

NEATH ensured they stayed in the promotion places in the Admiral National Championship with a hard-fought 29-15 victory at Narberth.

It was a battle between the boot of home full-back Nick Gale and the try-scoring power of Neath hooker Sion Crocker.

Gale kicked five penalties to keep his side in touch with the visitors, while Crocker plundered four of his side’s five tries as their driving maul came up trumps once again.

Gale gave his side an early 6-0 lead before the first of Crocker’s tries.

It was 17-9 to Neath at the break before another Gale penalty cut the gap to five points early in the second half.

Two more Crocker tries not only earned the bonus point, but also saw off the Otters.

Ystrad Rhondda scored 10 tries in their 64-29 home victory over Ystalyfera to make it five wins in a row.

There were two each for Cole Morgan and Kelly Jones, with Cavan Davies, Garyn Davies, Alex Webber, Nathan Hughes and Kurtis Williams also on the scoresheet.

Rhys Truelove kicked five conversions and Josh Williams added two more.

Ystalyfera left with one point after scoring four tries. They came courtesy of Tomos Powell, Ben Williams, Steff Jones and Ioan Jones, with Sam Comley kicking nine points.

Cardiff Met were still very much in the contest when they changed ends 17-14 down at Bargoed. But the second half belonged almost entirely to the Bulls as they romped to a 50-19 to stay in third place.

Beddau picked up a 34-24 win at Bedwas, despite conceding a second-minute try to Lloyd Wilkins.

They replied with tries from Ewan Roberts and Cody Baker. Roberts went on to score a second as Beddau scored five tries to leave with a bonus point.

Pontypool were forced to play with 14 men for 52 minutes at Trebanos after Pat Lewis was shown a red card.

Even so, the Championship leaders were still able to make light work of the second of their three successive away matches as they bagged seven tries in a 45-7 win that extended their unbeaten run to 14 games.

Huw Anderson ran in the first try for the visitors in the fourth minute and fellow wing Matthew Powell followed suit midway through the first half. Matthew Jarvis converted the latter.

Lewis then received his marching orders, but Peter Lloyd completed the first-half scoring with a try from a driving line-out to leave Pontypool leading 17-0.

The relentless power of the Pooler forwards took over in the second half and the bonus-point try came up two minutes after the break when skipper Scott Matthews crossed.

There were two more driving line-out scores and a penalty try to complete the Pooler scoring.

Trebanos got their points with an interception try eight minutes from time.