BONUS POINT KEEPS POOLER IN THE HUNT FOR PLAY-OFFS
PONTYPOOL kept alive their play-off aspirations as they saw off RGC at Pontypool Park to make it a hat-trick of bonus point victories in the Indigo Premiership.
The top four fate may be out of their own hands, but proud Pooler maintained their end of the bargain with five more points after another hard-fought victory.
Skipper Scott Matthews came off the bench to score his side’s fourth try in the second half to secure maximum points for Leighton Jones’ men, after first half scores from left wing Mathew Powell, hooker Sam Scarfe and full-back Matt Bancroft had set them on their way.
Pooler will know all they can do is keep winning, but also that a win for Cardiff over Merthyr next Saturday means they will fall ultimately short in the race for the top four.
This was RGC’s first visit to Pontypool since April 2016 when a 20-17 win helped earn them promotion to the Premiership.
Pooler were up and running inside four minutes when scrum-half Morgan Lloyd received centre Joel Mahoney’s offload and sent in Powell for the opening try.
Having missed with the conversion attempt, outside half Matthew Jarvis then successfully landed with a penalty after 12 minutes that took him past 200 points for the season.
Moments later Dion Jones kicked RGC’s first points off the match but, on 19 minutes, the home side were over for their second try after an impressive driving lineout that was finished off by Scarfe. Jarvis converted to make it 15-3.
After Jones nailed a second penalty, outside half Harri Ford’s try after 31 minutes pulled RGC back into it after a sustained spell of pressure from the visitors, with Dion Jones converting.
But three minutes later Pooler grabbed try number three, with Lloyd sending Powell down the right and he in turn set up Bancroft to score his first try for Pontypool, although the conversion was missed.
The hosts were 20-16 to the good at the turnaround after Dion Jones kicked another three points on the stroke of half time.
There was then a lengthy stoppage around the hour mark for Pooler prop Ollie Drake to receive treatment after an illegal tackle from Christian Hone that saw the RGC man sent to the sin bin.
After play resumed, Matthews scored a fourth Pooler try to make sure of the bonus point with Jarvis adding the extras – before adding his second successful penalty goal late on.