As the sun bore down on the ‘house of pain’ in Pontypridd, several thousand people descended towards Sardis Road in hope of their side being crowned 2015/16 Principality Premiership champions.
For many the nights leading up to Sunday were sleepless and nail-biting with the whole season swinging on this one game. Ebbw Vale had beaten Swalec cup champions Llandovery the week before to get to the final whilst Pontypridd who topped the league table amassing 81 points in the doing so, looked on with an extra week off for their reward.
The sides walked out to rapturous applause and cheering from the vociferous crowd who were in full motion from pre-game to post game; even Pontypridd fans who had just seen their side take quite a beating on their own turf.
The home crowd had the most to shout about in the opening exchanges with Ponty piling on the pressure, but the Steelmen held out. Eventually the pressure told and Ponty won a penalty, which fly half Ceri Sweeney pulled wide to the agony of the large home support gathered around the pitch.
Ebbw finally got a foothold in the game and with their first venture into the home half they took their chance superbly with a now patented ”catch N’Kynes” crossing the line. Dai Langdon superbly converted and the visitors led 8-0.
After some more Pontypridd pressure ,try scorer Ronny Kynes was shown a yellow card and sent to the sin bin. However the story of the half continued and the home side just couldn’t find a way to break the Ebbw defence and another Ebbw attack saw it finished superbly by winger David Williams.
Half time 14-0 to Ebbw Vale.
The second half began how the first half ended, with another Ebbw try, again from flanker Ronny Kynes crossed over for his 19th try of the season. A superb feat by no means. This was comically converted by Langdon who put the kick over with a large amount of help from the cross bar off which is bounced. The best try of the game however was next with a passing display off the visitors being ended with David Williams who scored his second of the afternoon. 30-0 after the successful conversion.
The sweltering weather continued and Ponty finally got on the scoreboard via Bradley Coombes. Dan Haymond was next on the scorecard picking up a loose ball and running it home 80m with a Shane Williams like dive to end it in the corner.
(Dan Haymond scoring his try)
The last play of the game saw Ponty save some face with Seb Davies grabbing a late consolation try for the hosts.
It was, however, only a consolation and referee Dan Jones blew his whistle, therefore commencing ecstatic celebration from the many ”Ebbw addicts” who has travelled to shout on their side.
Ebbw were crowned champions and back home at the welfare celebrations continued long into the night.
