Milford Haven 41

The Quins got off to a blistering start with a 10th try of the season for captain Thomas Doyle after just two minutes, when he finished off a superb counter attack by fullback Aaron James.

The Mariners, though, hit back five minutes later when flanker Ben Groves powered his way over near the posts to give Dan McClelland a simple conversion.

Five minutes later, James was at it again when he spotted a huge gap in the Mariners’ defence, before putting in a beautifully judged kick and touching down.

Aaron Cookson converted easily to put the Quins into a 12-7 lead, but the Mariners are not top of the league for nothing and responded with two more unconverted tries before the break by second row Dai Sweeney and right wing Lee Riley.

The Mariners were now one try away from a bonus point as the half-time whistle blew and it soon arrived when young second row Zac Davies crashed over for a try converted by McClelland.

Aaron James, though, responded with another Quins try, which went unconverted, before Davies grabbed his second try, which was again converted by McClelland.

With the score now at 17-31 in the Mariners favour, it was a case of whether the Quins could repeat the previous week’s try bonus at Laugharne, but wing Gareth Cheshire soon outflanked their defence to touch down for an unconverted try, before James got back into the swing of things, grabbing his hat-trick of tries by rounding the Milford defence wide out.

He narrowly missed converting his own try, and the Mariners then had the final say when Dai Sweeney crossed for an unconverted try right at the end of the match to keep his side’s title hopes alive.

Quins team: Aaron James, Will Nicot, James Skeels, Thomas Doyle (capt), Liam Hargreaves Gibson, Elliot Lewis, Aaron Cookson, Harry Owen, Hywel Baker, Sam James, Jack Brown, Tom Barrass, Jack Byrne, Jordan Palmer, George Bellmaine.