CLAIRE Molloy’s late try to clinch the women’s title for the Dragons, Newport’s cruise to victory in the plate final and Cross Keys’ run to the last four of the cup competition made it a fruitful day for Gwent sides at the Foster’s National 7s in Cardiff.

The tournament, which featured all 16 Principality Premiership teams and the four regions from the women’s game, was also a memorable one for Llandovery as they beat Aberavon 46-21 to claim the Foster’s 7s cup for a third successive year.

The Dragons women had only won one of their three seeding games for the semi-finals, beating the Blues 19-12 thanks to a couple of Molloy tries, but losing 12-7 and 12-0 to the Scarlets and Ospreys respectively.

They then gained revenge over the Ospreys in the last four with a 10-7 victory to go through to the final at the Arms Park in Cardiff – and they certainly left it late to secure the silverware against the Scarlets.

Female player of the tournament Elinor Snowsill converted her own try to get the ball rolling and then teammate Sian Williams increased the Dragons’ lead.

Jess Kavanagh-Williams replied before the break and Jodie Evans added the extras to get the defending champions back in the game.

It was all square when Elen Evans brushed aside a weak tackle from Williams to score.

Kavanagh-Williams was sin-binned for preventing a quick lineout and, with the clock having ticked down to zero, Molloy scythed her way through to the whitewash. Snowsill converted for a 19-12 victory for the Dragons.

Newport’s triumph in the plate was a lot more straightforward as they brushed aside RGC 1404 33-14.

Llwyarch Ap Myrddin starred with two tries while Arwel Robson, Eliot Frewen and Wes Cunliffe also crossed for the Black and Ambers.

Newport had ended up in the plate after a last-ditch penalty try saw them lose their opening match to Aberavon 19-12.

The contest seemed set for extra-time when the Wizards’ Matthew Jenkins was brought down illegally metres from the Newport line. Newport had led 12-5 thanks to tries from Chay Smith and Cunliffe.

Newport then trailed Swansea 14-0 before Robson, Geraint O’Driscoll, Tom Pascoe and Cunliffe all crossed to turn their plate quarter-final on its head.

And there was no stopping the Black and Ambers in the semis when they took on Pontypridd, with the Rodney Parade outfit crossing on no fewer than six occasions.

O’Driscoll, Hayden Palmer (2), Frewen, Ap Myrddin and Smith tries did the damage.

Meanwhile, Keys began their day by comfortably seeing off Merthyr, the side they will face in their opening fixture of the new Premiership season.

Lloyd Lewis, who left the field on a stretcher later in the same game, Matthew Powell (2), Owain Leonard, Max George and Jordan Davies registered tries.

Their second success, a 28-17 defeat of Cardiff in the cup quarters, owed a lot to the prowess of Ethan Davies.

He cancelled out Ceri Young’s early try with one of his own and then converted Leonard’s score.

Cardiff fought back and closed the gap to 14-12 but Davies scored another try and added the extras.

Lewis Barnett cantered over to put the match out of Cardiff’s reach, although Paul King grabbed a consolation try late on.

However, the semi-finals were just one step too far for Keys and Llandovery showed their class to run out 28-14 winners.

Lee Rees, Aron Evans and Rhodri Davies tries saw Keys trail 21-0 at the break.

Leonard got Keys on the board and George followed suit shortly after – Davies converting both – but any hopes of a comeback were dashed when Rees crossed under the posts.

There wasn’t a great deal to shout about for any Ebbw Vale or Bedwas supporters who had made the trip west to the Welsh capital.

Both sides lost their first round games and then exited the competition with defeats in the quarter-finals of the plate.

Ebbw, in fairness, did show plenty of fighting spirit in their opening match against Cardiff, coming back from 35-5 down to give some respectability to the scoreline at the final whistle.

Dai Jones, Curtis Povey, Josh Congreve and Tom Edwards crossed for Ebbw but they slipped to a 42-20 reverse.

Their plate clash with Merthyr wasn’t as close as the 24-21 result might suggest, with the Ironmen in control of the tie after moving into a 17-0 lead.

Congreve, Edwards and Josh Parr touched down in reply but by the time Parr scored Merthyr were already home and hosed.

As for Bedwas, they faced defending champions Llandovery in round one, and it didn’t look good when Drovers star Davies raced over to open the scoring.

But Phil Pariyo got Bedwas back on level terms at the break, slipping the tackle of Aaron Warren on the left flank to dot down.

But Warren was to have the last word as he added to another Davies try to complete a 19-7 triumph.

In the plate last eight, an Andrew Waite score got Bedwas off to a great start against RGC 1404 but four tries in succession took the North Walians out of sight.

Dai Lewis, who had been sin-binned earlier in the game, and George Lee recorded consolation tries for Bedwas.

Premiership new boys Bargoed caused the upset of the tournament in the first round with a six-try rout of 2013 winners and 2015 losing finalists Pontypridd.

However, in the cup quarters they came up against a Gwion Jones-inspired Carmarthen Quins and lost 35-12. Dai Evans scored three tries across Bargoed’s two games.