Newport miss out once again
Newport Titans needed to beat second placed Aberavon to have any chance of leaping Torfaen into third place but fell to a late surge of Fighting Irish tries. The Titans put Aberavon under the cosh early on but the visitors defence was strong and after a scoreless first 20 minutes Aberavon broke the deadlock with a try for Scott O’Kelly. Robert Mills, Jason Massey and Gareth Moore all scored twice while Lawrence Griffiths claimed Aberavon’s eighth.

Griffiths was in top form creating two tries before sprinting 40metres to score himself while Lee Jones was outstanding and moved to loose forward having started the game at fullback.

Newport’s points all came in the second half thanks to tries from Martin Crawley and Leighton Burrows and a Ryan Smith

goal and the Titans suffered more woes with two players ending the game at the Royal Gwent Hospital with broken arms and noses.

NEWPORT TITANS SCORERS:
TRIES:
Martin Crawley
Leighton Burrows
GOALS:
Ryan Smith

ABERAVON FIGHTING IRISH SCORERS:
TRIES:
Scott O’Kelly
Robert Hills (2)
Jason Massey (2)
Gareth Moore (2)
Lawrence Griffiths

Article by Simon Green
30 Jul 2005