Swansea blitzed Neath with six first-half tries before the Blacks came back strongly after the interval in Neath’s second pre-season warm-up fixture at The Lextan Gnoll.

Before spectators in a healthy pre-season crowd had settled into their seats, Swansea took the lead from the kick off when winger Tom Edwards raced away to score and his ex-Pontypridd team-mate Josh Phillips converted. The same pair quickly repeated the dose before ex-Llandovery wing Callum Dodd joined in on the opposite flank and Phillips converted to make it a stunning 21-nil inside 10 minutes.

Neath desperately tried to make an impression and twice the Sean Wilcox-Casey Williams axis was thwarted close to the line but, when play switched to the other end, Swansea showed their efficiency for hooker Llew Phillips-Taylor to claim a try midway through the half.

There had been occasional bouts of fisticuffs and, five minutes later, Neath lost No.8 Sam Gardner to the sin-bin where he remained until half-time. In his prolonged absence, Swansea extended their lead before half-time through tries by skipper Callum Bowden and prop Dafydd Davies, Phillips converting the latter for 38-nil.

As a contest, the game was over but Neath set themselves a revised target of at least ‘winning’ the second-half. Prop Mason Morgan had a fine game throughout and he launched Neath with a great charge and the Blacks enjoyed a good spell although but it was Swansea who increased their lead when centre Harrison Doe bagged a try which outside-half Harri Williams converted.

Both sides rang the changes and Neath introduced a few more regular heads as well as a further batch of younger ones. They had the desired effect as the home side suddenly made most of the running and the last half-hour belonged to the Blacks.

Three tries were Neath’s reward : try-poaching back rower Fergus Kneath made his bow and claimed two tries and winger Matthew Jenkins another but all three conversion attempts failed. The scores certainly gave the home supporters something to cheer but after that lightening start by Swansea there was only going to be one winner.

Several players unavailable for this game are likely to feature when Neath now move on to Friday’s final pre-season tie at home to 125th anniversary-celebrating Talywain. The Gwent side are newly promoted to the Championship after winning Division 1 East last year and the match kicks off at 7.15pm.

NEATH – S.Williams; M.Jenkins (L.Hawkes), N.Orrells, S.Wilcox, R.Griffiths (K.Morgan); J.Dixon (G.Richards), B.Wood (K.Davies); M.Morgan (J.Jones), K.Jones (J.Clark), T.Dabeh (E.Hopkins); M.Davies (O.Rice), D.Watkins (J.Blackmore); B.Williams (capt), S.Gardner (F.Kneath), C.Williams

SWANSEA – B.Wood; C.Dodd, H.Doe, C.Carson, T.Edwards; J.Phillips, A.Hemming; D.Davies, L.Phillips-Taylor,. C..Davies; C.Thompson, S.Pailor; G.Powell, J.Greaves, C.Bowden (capt)
Repl. – J.Cox, T.Crockett, F.Chapman, K.Hire, E.Fackrell, S.Davies, I.Temblett, H.Williams, L.Davies, W.Wood, G.Rees

Referee – Mr. B.Whitehouse (Gowerton)

Images courtesy of Len Kowalski www.lensworkphotography.co.uk