RGC were unable to claim a place in the Principality Premiership playoff final as they fell to a 35-5 reverse at Merthyr. The hosts ran in four tries in a 12-minute period to down the Gogs, who can look back on their debut top flight season with an enormous sense of pride after they achieved a top-four finish and got their hand on the WRU National Cup for the first time in their history. Head coach Mark Jones, said: “I thought we started well, and it was going pretty much to plan from what we discussed during the week. “We had three or four good chances when we were in the lead but didn’t take them and paid the price. Our line-out didn’t function today, and we looked lethargic with no tempo. “Credit to Merthyr and they were excellent in disrupting it and were clinical when they had the man advantage. The best team won on the day.” The game opened with a few penalty chances, and the boot of Jacob Bodica couldn’t find the mark on a couple of occasions, but Merthyr fly-half Mathew Jarvis opened the scoring with his boot. This provoked a strong response from the visitors, who notched the first try of the contest soon after when Andrew Williams crossed the white wash after good work from Botica. The Ironmen then turned the screw and regained the advantage when Edward Siggery scored, and further tries arrived following the yellow card of Henri Williams courtesy of Phil Reece and Kyle Evans. After the break saw the home side went over again shortly after the restart when Rhys Williams rounded off a fine team move, which seemed to deflate the Gogs as it looked to be one game too many in what has been a gruelling campaign. Jarvis added a pair of penalties to increase their advantage, and the rout was complete when Dean Gunter fired over another free-kick in the closing stages.