Newport’s Foreign Legion gave a big crowd plenty to smile about in an entertaining match against a second-string Pontypridd side at Rodney Parade.
Springbok ace Percy Montgomery and Irish international Matt Mostyn scored all 19 points in the opening half as the Black and Ambers ignored a strong wind in their faces to run in two unanswered tries and take a match-winning 16-point lead into the changing rooms.
Montgomery scored his first points for Newport since moving to Rodney Parade in late October with two penalty goals and a well-taken dropped goal in the opening 20 minutes.
Pontypridd fly-half Ceri Sweeney pegged back the margin with a penalty goal, but Montgomery refused to be kept out of the game. From loose play, he sent a wide pass to fellow South African-born centre Haldane Luscombe who went close before slipping the ball to winger Mostyn to score.
The Valley Commandoes tried to work their way back into the game, but their efforts came to nothing when Mostyn intercepted a long Sweeney pass and ran 75 metres to score in the last minute of the first half. It proved costly, though, with Mostyn forced to leave the field after injuring himself in a desperate lunge for the line.
Sweeney and Montgomery swapped penalty goals early in the second half, before Sweeney bounced out of three tackles scored a brilliant individual try and converted it to narrow the margin to nine points.
Montgomery’s fourth penalty goal settled the crowd’s nerves, before Samoan and New Zealand international scrum-half Ofisa Tonu’u put the matter beyond doubt with a try from close range.
English-born prop Duncan Bell scored a consolation try for the visitors in the dying minutes, with Sweeney’s sideline conversion giving him 17 points for the match.
Scorers: Newport: Tries – M Mostyn 2, O Tonu’u; Pens – P Montgomery 4; Con – P Montgomery; DG – P Montgomery. Pontypridd: Tries – C Sweeney, D Bell; Pens – C Sweeney 2; Cons – C Sweeney 2.
