Brecon travelled to Sardis Road, Pontypridd, for a historic first competitive league match at the House of Pain.

On the journey to the ground an advertising board named the match as “The Return of the Chief,” in honour of Brecon’s head coach, Dale McIntosh, who was a legend at the club, as player and coach.

The realistic ambition for Brecon was to be competitive and to give a good account of themselves, but the dream for players, supporters, and McIntosh himself, was to return with a victory against the Premiership’s leading side.

For 55 minutes that dream was alive, before Ponty hit another gear and ran out convincing winners.

At the post-match on-field debrief, the Chief left his charges in no doubt about his disappointment.

“It was a tough game and we put in some effort but it wasn’t sustained," he said.

"We weren’t able to keep them under pressure for long enough and then towards the end we gave them soft tries. We must buy into, sustain, and do what we work on in training or our season will slip.”

"We are a good side - better than this - and we are a group of lovely people so let’s hold our heads up, have a beer and then in the weeks to come prepare for our next challenge,” enthused McIntosh.

Having started the better of the two sides with Chad Davies almost scoring in the corner after a loop in midfield, Brecon opened the scoring with a James Dixon penalty. Disappointingly, they allowed Ponty to hit back immediately with a Jayden Pugh penalty after Brecon failed to claim and clear from the kick-off.

Brecon almost hit back with Davies again involved on his wing. A Logan McIntosh offload allowed Alwyn Lee to feed Davies in some space on the right. It took a great tackle from the Ponty captain and former Brecon junior, Cally James, to prevent the try. From that attacking position, Brecon gave away a series of penalties which allowed Ponty to work their way up the field as far as the Brecon five-metre line. Off the line-out they set up a maul and hooker Jeff Young scored and Pugh converted.

Ponty were lifted by the score and produced their best period of rugby of the half. Some great offloading play with Cai James, another Brecon product, ensured that Ponty were able to build sustained phases. Brecon’s defence was finally broken as number 8 Mitch Barnard broke through to score under the post, making Pugh’s conversion simple.

That score did not phase Brecon and they regrouped to finish the half in the ascendancy and claim a very good, well-deserved try. Jack Dixon made a number of telling runs to get close himself as did Lewis Jones and Brecon earned a scrum on five metres. Off the scrum, Dixon was hauled down just short, but the ball was quickly recycled and spun wide for full back Jake Newman to break and score, leaving Brecon nine points adrift at the interval.

Brecon deservedly claimed the first points of the second half with a Dixon penalty.

After 15 minutes of Brecon pressure, the game then turned as Ponty worked their way up field. Brecon failed to gain any distance on a clearing kick and from a Ponty line-out a rolling maul led to a try for prop Garyn Daniel. Pugh again converted.

Within minutes Brecon went further behind through another Gary Daniel try.

Ponty's Joe Davies then broke through to set up Lucas Welch for another score and the disappointing defeat was compounded in the final minutes when Brecon leaked another try through Dale Stuckey.