CRAIG Warlow is confident his Newport side can take the way they played at Ebbw Vale a week ago into tonight’s Sardis Road clash with Pontypridd (kick-off 7.15pm).

The Black and Ambers returned from Eugene Cross Park late last Friday having overturned a 17-3 deficit to beat the Steelmen 27-20 for a fifth straight league win.

Newport’s performance gave head coach Warlow plenty to be happy about, something that bodes well ahead of a difficult run of fixtures over the next few weeks.

After their visit to Pontypridd, Warlow’s men host Merthyr, then they go to Llandovery, before Carmarthen Quins head east to Rodney Parade.

And if they keep their excellent run going then, who knows, a title push might not be out of the question – Newport are currently fourth, 10 points behind leaders Merthyr.

“There was a belief among the players and coaching staff that if we did certain things we could put pressure on Ebbw Vale, and that proved to be the case,” said Warlow.

“And, thankfully, we got back to playing a bit of rugby instead of just trying to win the game.

“When we play against certain teams there is pressure on us to just win the game.

“When we play other teams we tend to relax more and that means we can play more rugby.

“With our next run of games, I’m relaxed and confident we can do this – play rugby, be relaxed and put pressure on the other team.

“We’ll go up to Pontypridd in a good frame of mind. We’re expecting nothing less than a good battle.

“They’ll play a slightly different game to Ebbw Vale, but it will be no less of a challenge for our lads.

“More than 90 points were scored when we played them at Sardis Road last season, they pipped us by two, so you know you’re going to get your money’s worth when we play each other.”

Warlow was particularly happy with the way Newport handled Ebbw’s driving lineout and how they went at scrum time.

“I was happy with the way we dealt with everything Ebbw Vale threw at us,” he added.

“I felt we had the upper hand in the scrum and we managed their driving lineout pretty well. All credit goes to Ty Morris (forwards coach) for the work he does leading up to a game.”

Back-rower Rhys Jenkins made a promising return from injury at Ebbw Vale but Warlow confirmed that centre Tom Pascoe is set to be unavailable for a few weeks.

Centre Haydn Palmer and hooker Evan Whitson both remain long-term injury absentees.