LLANIDLOES celebrated the early season bragging rights with a hard fought derby victory at old rivals Newtown.

Rob Cooper kicked an early penalty as Llanidloes broke the deadlock with the hosts soon restoring parity with a penalty from the boot of Dylan Leach.

Town settled into the game and led when good work from the pack produced a well worked try for No8 Jac Beynon-Thomas to touch down with Leach converting.

Llanidloes responded with a flurry of penalties to edge into a 12-10 lead with Cooper maintaining his perfect record.

However indiscipline cost Llanidloes who were reduced to 13 men near the end of the half with Newtown regaining the lead with scrum half Huw Spear wrong footing the visiting defence to dart over from short range with Leach converting.

Llanidloes started the second-half strongly with Cooper kicking another penalty while Town were dealt a blow with Benyon-Thomas sent to the sin bin.

The tide slowly turned in Llanidloes’ favour with a breakaway try from fly-half Dafydd Duggan followed by another try as captain Paul Jehu crossed under the posts with Cooper converting both and adding a penalty.

To their credit the youthful Town side had the final say and secured a losing bonus point with second row Tom Andrew forcing his way over for a late try.

NEWTOWN: Lloyd, Richards, Squibb, Pybus, Andrew, Pelling, Owen, Benyon-Thomas, Spear, Leach, Williams, A Evans, Holloway, Brunt, R Andrews. Reps – Marriott, T Andrews, Heywood, Paget

LLANIDLOES: Skinner, Phillips, Owen, Pugh, Hughes, A Williams, D Jones, Anwyl, I Jones, Duggan, J Davies, R Evans, Jehu, C Williams, Cooper. Reps – Jerman, Pestana, Morris, Horrigan, Bleddyn