Bridgend 15 Pontypool 12

POOLER showed character and spirit in a late fightback against high-flying Bridgend, with a late brace of Mike Poole tries almost enough to earn David Gray's side a share of the spoils.

While Pontypool have drawn twice already this term, Saturday's defeat will go down in the record books as another narrow defeat with nothing to show for it. But Gray believes his proud team have demonstrated they can mix it up with the Premiership big guns - which could prove crucial with a tough end of season run-in of fixtures to come.

Gray said: "As a team we showed fighting spirit and a will to do well - which is half the battle. Even in the first half when we failed to score we showed character and fought hard.

"We need to work on quicker ball and recycling the play before we take on Aberavon in a fortnight, but no-one gave us a chance at Bridgend but we came close."

In an uneventful first 40 minutes on Saturday, the home side kicked the only points of the first half to go 3-0 up.

Gray commented: "It was a tough game with no love lost between the two teams and I thought Pontypool dominated the first half but obviously we didn't turn the pressure into points. In the second half they've had a purple patch for 20 minutes and scored two tries to get a 15-0 lead.

"Then in the last ten minutes we came back and got a bit of territory, won some line-outs and got the ball out-wide."

That turnaround saw Pooler twice going over to score. His first try from a line-out was converted by Sam Mills, then a second in the corner after a driving maul brought the score to within three points of Bridgend.

But Gray was left frustrated at the death by what he viewed to be "poor" refereeing.

He said: "The referee should be giving the benefit of the play to the attacking team - which he did when Bridgend were on top and I've no complaints about that - but in the last five minutes when the boot was on the other foot we didn't get the decisions. I'm not into blaming referees but all I ask for is for them to be fair to both teams."