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A dominant nine-try Bargoed blew away Ystrad Rhondda to lift the WRU Championship Cup at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium over the weekend.

Their 65-12 triumph included four tries from speedy wing Ashley Norton, one of which was from a long-range interception, and went some way to making up for their defeat to Neath in the 2022 cup final.

Ystrad player-coach Alex Webber stressed in the build-up that his side had learned the lessons from their defeat to Pontypool a year ago.

Both teams came into the game having won one and lost one in their Championship fixtures, but there was only going to be one winner after the Bulls blasted into the lead after just three minutes.

Bargoed drew first blood with a penalty from outside-half Josh Prosser and Ystrad’s first disappointment came when fullback Josh Williams thought he had scored the game’s first try following a chip and chase off the back of a quickly taken lineout.

The try was eventually ruled out because the lineout was deemed to have been taken well in front of the assistant referee’s mark.

From the resulting scrum, Bargoed extended their lead with a slick first phase move which saw Norton step the final defender to score his first try. Back came Ystrad with a penalty try that saw Bargoed skipper and scrum-half James Leadbetter sin-binned for deliberately collapsing the maul.

A second Prosser penalty kept Bargoed’s score ticking over before Norton picked off a midfield pass 70 metres out and sped to the line to score after a side-step to beat the last defender.

Centre Callum Hones was next to cross the Ystrad line and there was a fourth before the break from tighthead prop Keegan Bale, who powered over from short range. Prosser’s fourth conversion meant Bargoed were already 34-7 ahead at half-time.

Ystrad at least came out swinging at the start of the second half and got the next score as they worked player-coach Alex Webber over in the left corner. But that was as good as it got for them as the rest of the game turned into a procession.

Ollie Andrews made the most of a charge-down by Leadbetter of an attempted clearance on the Ystrad line, before a Rhys Truelove pass was picked off by his opposite number Prosser, who ran in to score from 55 metres out.

Norton grabbed his hat-trick from short range as he ran through the Ystrad defence. Next over the Ystrad line was replacement Jordan Howells

Bargoed full back Dylan Williams was shown a red card with ten minutes left to play after head-on-head contact in a tackle, but it didn’t affect the result as Norton scored his fourth try to finish things off nicely for the by now rather bullish Bulls.

Norton, 33, was instrumental in Bargoed’s resounding victory in Cardiff. Speaking after his player of the match performance, he said: “I’m over the moon with that. This was the only thing left on my rugby ‘to do’ list and what a way to do it.

“I was nervous and excited when I woke up this morning but not even in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I’d score four tries at Principality Stadium.”

He added: “Our new coach Jack Condy has made a huge difference to the way we are playing, and we are thriving on the way he wants us to go about our business.”

Bargoed will be aiming for more silverware this season. The Bulls are second in the WRU National Championship East, but sit just six points behind leaders Cardiff Met having played four less games.

Report courtesy of the Welsh Rugby Union