HEAD coach Sven Cronk was at a loss to explain Newport’s poor second half performance at Swansea which ultimately sealed their first defeat of 2011, the hosts running out 27-18 winners.

The Black and Ambers were more than in the game in the opening half, leading four times as they ran Swansea ragged out wide.

And it looked like being a memorable 100th Newport appearance for winger Mike Poole who crossed for two tries.

But they did not trouble the scoreboard operator after the break and could not even muster a losing bonus point as they went down by three tries to two.

“I’m just gutted for the players really,” said Cronk. “We just didn’t come out second half as we said we would and as we had done in the first half.

“We deserved to lead four times in the opening 40 but we just couldn’t sustain that for whatever reason that was. We came down to Swansea with a defensive plan to stop them playing and we achieved that. But it was about the other bits and pieces.

“Somehow the game got away from us. But I’ll have to look at why we didn’t play second half because we were causing them massive problems in the first half.

“We identified the 13-15 channel was on and wings Mike Poole and Matthew Pewtner got in the game, but in the second half perhaps we were guilty of kicking ball away a couple of times which prevented us from getting our strike players in the game.”

Newport took it to Swansea in the opening 40 minutes with wing Poole crossing for a brace.

The first half was nip and tuck with Gareth Bowen’s boot giving Newport the lead at 3-0 and 6-3 before Poole’s opening try gave his side a 13-6 advantage.

But every time Newport scored Swansea soon pegged them back with outside-half James Dixon, who had a two-season spell with the Black and Ambers, keeping Swansea in touch with a converted try and two penalties.

And Swansea upped the tempo after the break with their forwards matching a big Newport pack.

Lock Richard Kelly went over after a neat dummy by scrum-half Rhodri Wells at the start of the second half before replacement No. 9 Phil Tucker nipped for his side’s third try in injury time.

Swansea: J Garland: N Thomas, L Hathaway, C Shelmerdine, N Harwood; J Dixon, R Wells (P Tucker 62); L May, S Baldwin (P John 63), A Clatworthy (R Jones 78), S Kiley (capt, Ben Fox h-t), R Kelly, T Morgan (R Pitman 52), S Jones, S Lewis (B Lewis 40).

Scorers - tries: J Dixon, R Kelly, P Tucker; pens: J Dixon (2); cons: J Dixon (3).

Newport: A Awcock; M Poole (O Broad 74), N Brew, S Williams, M Pewtner; G Bowen, J Leadbeater (J Davies 61); D Pattison, A Brown (A Ellis 82), G Robinson, D Rosser, A Jones (capt, A Frampton 61) A Jones, C Hill, S Waldron.

Scorers - tries: M Poole (2); pens: G Bowen (2); con: G Bowen.

Referee: David Bodilly (Cardiff) Man of the match: Scott Williams