Agony on road for Newport (From Campaign Series)

Agony on road for Newport

9:19pm Friday 30th November 2012 in Gwent rugby By Chris Kirwan

BEDWAS 30 NEWPORT 9

BEDWAS are still setting the pace in the Premiership after doing the double over Newport thanks to a 30-9 victory at Bridge Field last night.

Steve Law’s men were fortunate to sneak a 26-25 when the sides met at Rodney Parade in mid-September but were good value for taking the spoils from a hard-fought clash.

As a club they may be as fashionable as wearing white socks with black leather shoes but nobody at Bridge Field will care a jot while everyone else is looking up at them.

Bedwas have developed an uncanny knack of edging tight tussles and doing that so often cannot just be down to luck; they are a good side who will be tough to shift.

Bedwas got their noses in front and then soaked up pressure from the Black and Ambers.

Pre-match predictions of there being little to choose between two in-form sides proved to be spot-on with the hosts just about deserving their 12-6 half-time lead.

It was nip and tuck throughout the first half with neither side able to build a solid platform, Bedwas having the nudge at the scrum yet Newport frequently destroying their lineout through lock Rhodri Jones at the front.

There were a couple of close scrapes but no tries in a first 40 minutes that was dominated by the boot with fly-half Richard Powell and his replacement Ethan Davies (3) knocking over a quartet of penalties for the hosts and Scott Sneddon kicking a brace.

The Black and Ambers struck first after the restart – replacement fly-half Tom Hancock making it 12-9 – but then Bedwas stretched away thanks to their scrum.

They exploited a one-man advantage courtesy of a yellow card to Jones to put the squeeze on in the set piece and go 22-9 up with a penalty try and three-pointer.

And it was game over when Dragons right winger Matthew Pewtner powered over on 68 minutes to secure four well-earned points.

Bedwas scorers: tries – penalty, M Pewtner; conversion – E Davies; penalties – R Powell, E Davies (5)

Newport scorers: penalties – S Sneddon (2), T Hancock