Ebbw were comfortable winners in this friendly fixture at sunny Pontypool Park on Saturday afternoon. Playing uphill in the first half, Ebbw scored four tries through Harrison Keddie, Keagan Bale (who supported Tom Edwards’s sharp break superbly), David Williams and a penalty try when Williams was illegally tackled as he was about to score. Dai Langdon converted three, to make the score 26-0 at half time. It had not been one-way traffic by any means, but Ebbw were faster and more clinical than Pontypool – perhaps the most significant difference between Premiership and Championship rugby.

The second half was a stop-start fair, frequently halted by whistle and player errors. The only score was a precision-tooled catch-n-Kynes try, converted by Iain Smerdon, to give the Steelmen a 33-0 win – a more than satisfactory result, but a performance that can certainly be improved.