RGC head coach Mark Jones praised his side’s second half fightback in their 43-39 defeat at Principality Premiership rivals Bridgend.

The Gogs fielded a youthful side for the clash and turned in a heroic display in the second period to secure a bonus point, and they return to Stadiwm Zip World this Saturday for a home clash against Pontypridd (2.30pm).

Speaking to the RGC official website, Jones said: “Credit to Bridgend who exploited our weaknesses in the first half, where we looked slow around the breakdown and were unable to match them

“At half time we talked about doing the simple things and making sure we carried hard when we had the ball.

“The last three games we have lost by a score and could put in a case for actually winning the game. But results can come with experience, and at the moment we don’t have as much of that in the side – and looking at today we had a backline of Sam Rogers, Bailey Rae and Sam Jones with an average age of 19.

“A huge positive is that when you add in the players currently out injured then we will have a depth in the squad moving forward.”

Billy McBryde opened the scoring with a penalty after three minutes for the visitors, but they were undone by a series of superb attacking moves by the Ravens that resulted in scores from Tom Morgan (2), Ben Jones and James Little, with Owen Howe despatching the conversions and also slotting over a penalty.

The away side showed signs of life towards the end of the period as Robin Williams went over for a score that was converted by McBryde, and a stunning comeback looked on after the break thanks to well-worked scores from Sam Rogers, Sam Jones, Billy Rae and McBryde.

Howe despatched another penalty to keep the home side in command, but pacey winger Sam Jones demonstrated his trademark pace to latch on to a Rogers kick for his second try of the contest.

Despite throwing everything at the Ravens in the closing stages, the Gogs were unable to find another elusive try and had to settle for a bonus point in defeat.