The home side bounced back from defeat on their last outing, sharing eleven tries with their local rivals, ensuring confidence is resored ahead of the forthcoming Konica Minolta Cup Final. After being out of sorts in the 10-23 defeat to Pontypridd last weekend Coach Rowland Phillips was pleased with the performance in front of the home fans.
“Last week’s game against Ponty was very disappointing and I felt out our performance was very poor, today we showed what we are capable of and it should give us some confidence going into the Konica Minolta Final,” he said.
Swansea had the better start and came close to scoring a try in the first few minutes. Neath responded and flanker James Merriman and No.8 and Captain Lee Beach’s ball carrying saw the Blacks edge to the Swansea line. Patience paid off and Neath were awarded a penalty, and fly-half Arwel Thomas comfortably kicked it to put Neath in the lead, 3-0.
Scrappy play plagued Neath’s game in the first half and Swansea outside-half Dan Biggar kicked a penalty in front of the posts to level the score at 3-3, but the Neath forwards piled on the pressure and their efforts were turned into points as Beach put the ball over the line, to gain a 8-3 lead. In the 36th minute Swansea inside centre Richard Payne leveled the scores with a try, just three minutes later Neath centre Steve Thomas made a break up the middle of the pitch for wing Kevin James to grab the spoils and touch down the ball. Moments later Neath Martin Morgan added a try of his own, and Arwel Thomas duly converted to put the Blacks 20-8 ahead at the end of the first half.
The second half saw a more composed Neath and in the 46th minute, scrum-half Gareth Williams added his name to the score sheet with a try. Swansea came back on the attack and wing Rhys Jones made a break to allow No.8 Mark Popham to score, and Biggar to convert, 27-13. Neath were awarded a penalty try in the 63rd minute making it 34-15, only for Swansea to reply with a try under the posts from replacement centre Adrian Thomas, Biggar converted.
Swansea replacement flanker Habir Singh was yellow carded in the same minute he came on and Neath took full advantage. Replacement fly-half Howard Thomas and Beach sealed the win with two tries in the final quarter, leaving Swansea to claim 4th place in the Principality Premiership.
