Aberavon 27 Newport 15

NEWPORT'S patched-up side gave a better display than the scoreline suggests, but still could not prevent Aberavon taking five points from the match.

Coach Ian Hembrow absolutely refused to give injuries or Dragons calls as the blame for announcing a side that had only three forwards among the replacements.

Instead, he said: "The 22 players gave me commitment throughout and if we had accepted three good chances we may have won the game.

"We just failed to finish it off, but we played well and Dan Griffiths at fly-half was a fine controller and showed why such a good No 10 as James Dixon had to be on the replacements bench. I am lucky to have two such players in that position."

Sadly, there were further injuries for Hembrow and his staff to worry about, particularly at forward as Richard Field was led off slowly; Matthew Veater hurt an arm badly in the final seconds and Adam Frampton was halted on two occasions.

Prop Ian Evans came off injured, but returned much later for David Pattison, while players such as Paul Williams, Nathan Williams and Andrew Coombes were missed and the honest Hembrow must hope that an extra 24 hours before Sunday's match with Swansea will help some back to fitness.

Aberavon led 14-0 with the second five-pointer being from powerful forward pressure in the way that Cardiff were demolished seven days earlier. To the Newport pack's credit, they tried valiantly and were in the game until the final minutes.

Griffiths placed a penalty before the break that saw him become the third player, behind Jamie Davies (Aberavon) and Luke Richards (Maesteg) to achieve 1,000 points in the semi-professional Premiership era.

After the interval the hardworking Frampton was driven over, and though Aberavon retaliated with a third try, scrum-half Matthew Thomas took advantage of a turnover to race 30 metres without a hand being laid on him.

At 19-15 the issue was in doubt, but veteran No 8 Richard Morris came on and bashed his way over for his 130th Aberavon try with Davies popping over a late penalty to deny Newport a losing bonus point.

There will be several fitness tests before the Swansea match and Hembrow will be hoping to strengthen his pack and get back to winning ways.

Aberavon: J Garland, R Carter, L Gadd, P Bamsey, S Davies; J Davies, C Morgans (G Hooper 67); L Howell (N White 70), C Wells (M Breeze 59), A Edwards (P Breeze 66), I Moore (capt), A Fisher (C Gittins 59), C Davies, R Morgan (R Morris 59), S Peters.

Tries - L Gadd, S Davies, R Morris, pen try; cons - J Davies 2; pen - J Davies.

Newport: L Hathaway (M Hook 53); W Kershaw-Naylor, N Wakley, S Williams, M Poole (C Young 70); D Griffiths (J Dixon 75), M Thomas; D Pattison (capt) (I Evans 72), A Brown (M Leaman 72), I Evans (D Evans 39), M Workman, A Frampton, M Veater, R Field (T Organ 65), C Hill.

Tries - A Frampton, M Thomas; con - D Griffiths; pen - D Griffiths.

Referee - Jonathan Mason (Dunvant).