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Porthcawl, fresh from beating second placed Swansea uplands on Wednesday evening with a Jon Phillips try to nil in a very hard fought match, turned on the style to again demolish the Neath side, running in thirteen unanswered tries and record the double, following g the 76-5 success at Neath in September.

Now whilst the score reflects the Seaweeds’ vast superiority, it does scant justice to the efforts of their opponents, who played decent rugby in patches, with their penalty scorer outside-half Arin Gulsen, No.8 Gareth Morgan, scrum-half Nathan Murphy, lock Huw Widlake and centre Gwidion Llyr, all doing their best to inspire their side against the tide and they deserve big mentions for that.

The match was barely two minutes old when centre Jon Phillips nabbed Porthcawl’s first try, one of four for him for the match, with Josh white converting and 7-nil. With the home side giving away cheap penalties early on, allied to less than accurate execution, Gulsen kicked Neath back into it with a 35 metre penalty and 7-3.

The visitors did their best to make Porthcawl work hard for points however the superior speed of Gareth Rees soon made the scoreboard tick along, as he nabbed two sharp tries, the second of which started with a super pass from right wing Jack Power, with White converting both and 21-3 inside 20 minutes.

Owen Thomas, playing at hooker in a change of role, showed his strength to rob Murphy of the ball and pinned his ears back over 35 metres for a fine individual try and 26-3 before left wing Jake Thomas, back to his best, increased the lead to 31-3 before a superb break out of defence by Jack Power only for his pass to Jake Furness to find the ground with a try begging. However, it wasn’t long before Phillips blazed away for another super try from almost halfway, converted by White and at 38-3 the match was over as a contest at the break.

As prop Matt Cook came on for Tim Lunn, Porthcawl ramped up the running Rugby, with Cook himself showing some superb handling touches and a couple of breaks and Rees was again on the score sheet as he skipped under the posts for his hat-trick try, converted by White and 45-3, as the floodgates started to open.

Jake Thomas was fed by his namesake full back Ben, to cross for his brace and 50-3 before flanker Ben Asprea strode 35 metres to cross at the posts, converted by White for 57-3 and was quickly followed to the same spot by Phillips as he chased his own kick through for the try, White again converting and 64-3.

A brilliant dummy and break by Cook and delightful kick ahead almost produced a try for Jake Furness before Sean Wilcox weaved his way through to the posts for White to convert and 71-3, with Neath now crumbling. Phillips then capped a superb afternoon with his fourth try, wide out on touch, this being surpassed only by White’s magnificent conversion for 78-3.
The final score of the match came as substitute lock Nick Nutman nabbed a try following a run by Ben Thomas, with Rees handing out the scoring pass and 83-3, White’s conversion just wide.

So a thoroughly good run-out for Porthcawl as they catch up on matches and edging towards the Bowl final in Cardiff on 29 April.

It’s back on the road for the Seaweeds on Wednesday as they travel to Bryncoch, seeking another double.