Shaun Payne ran in a hat-trick of tries as Swansea crushed Welsh-Scottish League strugglers Ebbw Vale.

The visitors dominated from the start as they rattled up a half century to keep themselves on the toes of the league pacesetters.

Geraint Lewis figured twice in a slick move that quickly put Swansea in the driving seat, but the home side managed to clear their lines.

Play switched to the other end where Mark Jones was up-ended in the act of jumping at a line out and Jason Strange opened the scoring with a penalty for Ebbw.

But Arwel Thomas soon got his back line moving again when he fed Shaun Payne on the wing from a line out and his pass inside created a try for Kevin Morgan. Thomas converted with a fine kick.

Sin bin

Shortly afterwards, Morgan was given 10 minutes in the sin bin by referee Clayton Thomas for preventing the ball from being played.

As he came back on, Thomas landed a penalty to increase the Swansea lead.

A strong run down the middle from Mark Taylor led to the All Whites' second try. Payne gratefully accepted his excellent pass to run under the posts for a touchdown that made Thomas' job easy.

Thomas followed up shortly afterwards with a superb drop goal and Swansea were almost out of sight.

Shaun Connor pulled back three points for Vale with a penalty after replacing the injured Strange, but that was as good as it got for the home side.

Cooler

Dean Thomas was the next to spend 10 minutes in the cooler after some spirited forward exchanges.

Rhodri Jones stamped his authority on the game after the break as Swansea powered on to a fine win.

Two superb breaks from the scrum-half set up Payne for his second and then saw Colin Charvis also cross. Each time Arwel Thomas converted with excellent kicks.

Matthew Robinson extended the lead to 41-6 when he tore over near the posts to give Thomas his chance of keeping up the 100% kicking record before being substituted.

Cerith Rees, who took his place at outside half, caught the eye straight away when he gave a fine scoring pass to Robinson and then made a great job of the conversion kick.

With the last move of the game Payne tore over to complete his hat-trick. Rees' conversion wrapped up a fine afternoon's work.

Scorers - Ebbw Vale: Pens: J Strange, S Connor

Swansea: Tries: K Morgan, S Payne 3, M Robinson 2, Charvis. Cons: A Thomas 5, C Rees 2. Pens: A Thomas. Drop Goals: A Thomas

Teams

Ebbw Vale: R Potter, R Shorney, P Matthews, J Hawker, A Harries, J Strange, G Betts, I Thomas, B Morris, A Metcalfe, C Billen, D Jones, G Green, T Morris, M Jones (capt)
Replacements: Peacock, A Phillips, Edwards, Rogers, Taylor, S Connor, C Landry

Swansea: K Morgan, S Payne, M Taylor, S Gibbs (capt), M Robinson, A Thomas, R Jones, D Morris, C Wells, C Anthony, T Maullin, J Griffiths, C Charvis, G Lewis, D Thomas
Replacements: S Martens, C Rees, D Weatherley, B Evans, G Jenkins, L Jones, P Moriarty

Referee: Clayton Thomas (Wales)