THIS game was, as Nigel Davies admitted afterwards, by no means a classic, but the ability to win ugly will certainly stand Ebbw Vale in good stead as try to retain their Principality Premiership crown.

Three straight victories have taken the Steelmen up to sixth in the table, nine points below unbeaten leaders Aberavon, though head coach Davies and his men do have a match in hand.

But while Newport, Bridgend and, on Saturday, Neath have come a cropper against the defending champions, Davies feels Ebbw’s performances in each of those fixtures haven’t been up to scratch.

At the Gnoll, the Gwent side’s normally reliable lineout was shaky, while they were penalised on more than one occasion at scrum time.

They did manage to get over the line twice thanks to tries from openside flanker Dawid Rubasniak and veteran hooker Mathew Williams, but Davies was far from happy with his team’s overall display.

However, despite feeling a sense of frustration, he is confident that they will improve as the season goes on.

“Although we’ve won the last three games the performances haven’t been what we expect and that’s frustrating,” he said.

“Having said that, we are building some momentum now and starting to climb the table with a game in hand so that’s a positive.

“There is still a lot of work for us to do but I suppose the good thing is we can play a lot better.”

He added: “I sensed there was a flatness about the players before the game which was disappointing, however, I also sensed there won’t be that flatness next week.

“I’m just looking for a bit more of a complete performance and we’ve got a long, long way to go, but I know this team can play a lot better than that.”

Analysing the game in more detail, he said: “We failed to secure our lineout ball which is very unusual. If you can secure your own lineout ball you can actually dictate the game.

“We couldn’t do that and that was disappointing from our point of view.

“We got penalised a few times at scrum time which I don’t think were the right calls, but we’ve got to learn to deal with that a little bit better than we did.

“We didn’t have a set-piece platform to play off and I just thought there were times where we lost composure as a team and went outside our patterns, so there is much to do.

“It was a poor standard game. In this league, if it’s not played well it can go down to that standard.

“When sides do play well and are on top of their game it’s very entertaining, but this wasn’t one of those times.”

Try scorer Rubasniak was particularly impressive, as was Ronny Kynes, who replaced the former 10 minutes into the second half.

“I thought both sevens did very well,” added Davies. “We know Ronny had a fantastic season last year but he has started this one in a similar vein.

“But it was the right call not to start him because Dawid needed an opportunity and he’s a very promising young player, and he took his try very well.”

Fly-half Josh Lewis had converted Rubasniak’s close-range effort by the time Luke Price got Neath on the board with a penalty.

The hosts were on top when Leon Ward was sent to the sin bin and Williams, with the aid of the Ebbw pack, took the visitors’ lead to 12-3 on 54 minutes.

Lewis converted but the Welsh All Blacks struck back soon after through No 8 Charlie Davies whose try made the score 14-8.

Ebbw could have increased their tally on several occasions in the last quarter but the Neath defence held strong.

Neath: D Guarneri; A Grabham, G Evans, K Williams, K Corbisiero (E Howley 32); L Price (M Pearce 80), J Guy; B Uphill (C Jones 59), A Morris, G James, L Bateman (J Griffiths 56), J Barley, L Ward (C Davies 66), J Collier (capt), C Davies. Reps not used: N White, S Crocker, I Evans.

Ebbw Vale: W Talbot-Davies (D Haymond 64); C Levesley, J Howells, D Langdon, J Rosser; J Lewis, B Ellis (C Thomas 72); R Jones (I George 50), M Williams (J Franchi 69), G Robinson (R Sevenoaks 50), D Hudd (capt), A Sweet (J Bartlett 72), R Clarke, D Rubasniak (R Kynes 50), R Pitman (E Doyle 69).

Scorers: Neath – Try: C Davies, Pen: L Price

Ebbw Vale – Tries: D Rubasniak, M Williams, Cons: J Lewis (2)

Argus star man: Dawid Rubasniak (Ebbw Vale)