By Rob Cole

Regardless of how good or bad your opposition are, you have to give the utmost respect to any team that goes through a league season without losing a game.

Pontypool took on the ‘Invincible’ tag last weekend when they closed out their WRU National Championship campaign with a 22^nd win of the campaign with a 27-20 win at Narberth.

Given their hosts are chasing a second place finish, it was a great way to end an outstanding season.

To put the achievement into some form of context, they created history by becoming the first team to go through the whole season in the WRU National Championship unbeaten. They managed to go one better than the previous season, when they lost once at Cardiff Met to take the title with 21 wins out of a possible 22.

They have thus joined Ebbw Vale in winning back-to-back titles, matching the Steelmen’s achievement of 2013 and 2014, when they lost only two games in two seasons.

Everything improved for the champions from last season – they ended with nine more match points, scored 121 more points and ran in 24 more tries.

Their 139 tries in 22 games came at an average of 6.31 per game, compared to Ebbw Vale’s best of 6.11 per game in 2013, and wasn’t far behind Merthyr’s record of 6.50 in 2016. They only conceded 30 tries, one less than in the previous season, at an average of 1.36 per game.

📷 Re-live the action from last Saturday’s thrilling encounter versus @Narberth_rfc and the day in which @PontypoolRFC became #TheInvincibles → https://t.co/nuyoaFs0n2#PoolerArmy pic.twitter.com/qJ62xBDfxT

— The Invincibles 🇾🇪 (@PontypoolRFC) April 23, 2018

WRU NATIONAL CHAMPONSHIP WINNERS

YEAR      CHAMPIONS      W-D-L   PTS         TRIES     TPG        PPG
2013       Ebbw Vale           25-0-1   123         159         6.11        43.53
2014       Ebbw Vale           25-0-1   122         151         5.80        38.80
2015       Bargoed               25-0-1   124         133         5.11        36.84
2016       Merthyr               24-0-2   118         169         6.50        45.84
2017       Pontypool           21-0-1   98           115         5.22        36.59
2018       Pontypool           22-0-0   107         139         6.31        42.09

TPG – Tries per game
PPG – Points per game

They will have to slug it out for one more season in the Championship before discovering whether or not the gateway will open up into the reduced Premiership in the 2019-20 season.

Only 12 teams, rather than 16, will be in the latest version of the Premiership after the WRU opted to slash the numbers and budget for the top tier of the community/semi-pro game in favour of regional Under 23 sides.

It seems, therefore, that the best Pontypool can hope for is a place in a play-off for the 12^th and final place in the new Premiership. Or they may have to wait another year and try to gain promotion via the 2019-20 Championship season.

They have proved over the past two seasons they have a squad capable of mixing it with the best teams in the Premiership on a one-off basis. Last season they won at Llanelli and Cardiff before going down to Cross Keys in the quarter-finals of the Welsh Cup, while this season they beat Carmarthen Quins at home.

The last time they were in a truly competitive Championship was in 2015-16, when they were pipped at the death by RGC 1404 for the fourth and final promotion spot.

What a day yesterday was…

Thank you, #PoolerArmy! 👏🏻#TheInvincibles 🇾🇪 pic.twitter.com/jIzhC9Fq9s

— The Invincibles 🇾🇪 (@PontypoolRFC) April 22, 2018

Merthyr went up as champions with Bargoed and Swansea joining the Gogs in rising through the ranks.

Since that season Merthyr have dominated the Premiership – Pontypool went to The Wern this season and were beaten 21-6 in the Cup – RGC 1404 won the Cup last year, while Swansea and Bargoed have struggled. The challenge for Pooler if they make the grade into the Premiership will be to get up to the playing standard of Gwent rivals Newport, Cross Keys and Ebbw Vale, who also marched from the Championship into the Premiership and won the title.

Quite how the ‘Class of 2018’ compares to the glory teams of the past is impossible to calculate. There is little doubt that the playing standard is well below the halcyon days when Ray Prosser was in charge in the Seventies and Eighties, but you can take nothing away from the achievement of the Championship winners – after all, you can only beat what is in front of you.

The Pontypool team of 1987-88 won 35 of their 36, scoring 1011 points and conceding only 411. That made it an average of 28 points per game, although the try was only worth four points at the time.

This year’s edition showed plenty of character and resilience on the road in Pembrokeshire after finding themselves five points adrift with 15 minutes to go against Narberth.

Rhodri Jones ran in a third try for the visitors with 10 minutes to go and Matthew Jones added the extras to put his side ahead.

“We’ve shown that ring-fencing is a failed concept.

It’s testament to the squad’s hunger that they have achieved something so special, despite the glass ceiling.

Pontypool is a Premiership team and next season, we take this club back to the top tier.”

– CEO, @BenJeffreys. pic.twitter.com/c9y1MzlrPE

— The Invincibles 🇾🇪 (@PontypoolRFC) April 22, 2018

Brendan Lampitt and Rhodri Usher scored the other tries for Pooler and Jones ended with 12 points to end the season with 168 points in league and cup matches. It was only the third game of the season in which the champions failed to pick up a bonus point as they ended with a total of 107 points out of a possible 110.

The battle for the runners-up spot is set to go down to the wire with last season’s Division 1 West champions Trebanos moving into second place with their 39-29 home win over basement boys Glynneath.

There were six tries for the home side, with two each for Steffan Lewis and Nathan Jones, and they will complete their outstanding first Championship campaign with a return fixture with Glynneath on 5 May. They currently lead Narberth by three points in the battle for the runners-up spot, but both Narberth and fourth placed Tata Steel have a game in hand.

They meet in Narberth on Saturday, by which time Tata will also have hosted Bedlinog as they look to close their four point gap on Trebanos. Further down the table, Newbridge completed their campaign with an eight try, 50-39 home win over Newcastle Emlyn.

Further down the table, Cardiff Met’s 26-20 home defeat left them in a battle with Skewen to avoid finishing one off the bottom. Skewen have a game in hand, and are five points behind the students.

 

@PontypoolRFC well done guys great achievement

— Andy Powell (@andypowell8) April 21, 2018

WRU National Championship Remaining Matches

Wednesday, 25 April
Rhydyfelin v Glynneath
Tata Steel v Bedlinog

Saturday, 28 April
Glynneath v Beddau
Narberth v Tata Steel
Skewen v Rhydyfelin

Saturday, 5 May
Bedlinog v Cardiff Met
Glynneath v Trebanos
Narberth v Skewen

P             W            D             L              Pts
Pontypool           22           22           0              0              107
Trebanos             21           13           0              8              65
Narberth             20           12           1              7              62
Tata Steel            20           12           0              8              61
Newbridge          22           12           0              10           58
Bedlinog              20           10           1              9              53
Newcastle Em    22           9              1              12           47
Beddau               21           8              0              13           42
Rhydyfelin          20           8              0              12           41
Cardiff Met         21           7              1              13           38
Skewen                20           7              0              13           33
Glynneath           19           2              0              17           12