Anyone who believes the Konica Minolta Cup doesn't have a future should have been at Aberavon during 8 minutes of injury time. A neck injury suffered midway through the 2nd half by Aberavon prop Paul Breeze, requiring hospital treatment, caused a lengthy delay. Newport heightened the tension by registering an 84th-minute try from lock Darren Davies, converted by fly-half Dan Griffiths, but the Wizards clung on to book a place in the semi-finals for a second successive year. On similar lines to their home win over holders Neath in the last round, the Wizards almost tackled themselves to a standstill. Having gone 18pts down by the 32nd minute, the B&A?s rallied during injury time on the back of a try from their flanker Sam Waldron, but ultimately paid a high price for poor decision-making, refusing two kickable penalties on the restart. Either would have trimmed the lead to 18-6 while two other incidents will surely come back to haunt them. With eight minutes remaining, and the Wizards desperately clinging on to an 18-10 advantage, Newport opted to drill a simple penalty into the corner. A penalty and unconverted try, making it 18-18, would have been enough to take them through to the semi-finals on try-count. Even at 18-17, Newport had a golden opportunity to go for a winning drop-goal, but it wasn't on their agenda.
The Wizards, who opened the scoring on the back of a seventh-minute Jamie Davies penalty, dominated the opening half. Prop Paul Breeze almost squeezed over for a corner try, but they had to be satisfied with a snap drop-goal from centre Darren Ryan. A patient build-up led to wing Daran Griffiths crossing for a 22nd-minute try with fly-half Davies sending over a touchline conversion and Aberavon were in control once hooker Chris Wells was driven over for a 32nd-minute touchdown. The Newport revival was launched by Waldron's try, making it 18-5 at the break but during the third quarter they rued a failure to turn pressure into points. A 66th-minute try from centre Rhys Shorney held out hopes of better things to come for the huge Newport contingent.