Neath's James Storey is dumped by Mark Taylor

The All Whites drove into the Neath half and their momentum was only halted when Neath skipper Gareth Llewellyn tackled opposite number Scott Gibbs high.

Henson converted the penalty and the home side were up and running.

Shaun Payne should have held onto the ball with the line at his mercy after good work by Hywel Jenkins and Kevin Morgan, but Neath were unable to clear their lines.

Swansea stayed patient, recycled the ball well and eventually found prop Darren Morris loitering on the left wing to barrel over the line.

Henson missed the conversion but made no mistake eight minutes later with a penalty to put Swansea into the lead for the first time, 11-10.

Both sides were putting in some huge tackles, none more so than veteran wing Brian Lima who was shaking forwards as well as backs with some big hits, Nathan Bonner-Evans in particular feeling the Samoan's power.

Deep into first-half injury time Jarvis got Neath's title hopes back on track with his second drop-goal.

Jarvis had an early chance in the second half to increase Neath's lead but missed a long penalty.

Opposite number Henson made no mistake with his first penalty chance to put Swansea into the slenderest of leads 14-13 after 53 minutes.

Defence was fierce from both sides

That signalled the moment for Neath coach Lyn Jones to send for reinforcements and scrum-half Andy Moore and wing Shane Williams - back in action after a lengthy injury lay-off - took their places on the field.

The changes lifted Neath and they took their fly-half deep enough into Swansea territory for Jarvis to strike his third drop-goal of the night.

Swansea, who had matched Neath every step of the way, then found their own drop-goal master in Henson.

The youngster in quick succession struck one three-pointer, had one charged down, then hit a second to put the home side 20-16 ahead with eight minutes left.

Neath's efforts became increasingly ragged as they saw their Welsh/Scottish League title hopes slipping away.

Centre James Storey was sin-binned deep in injury time for a late tackle on Morgan as the visitors' frustration boiled over.

Swansea: K Morgan; B Lima, S Winn, S Gibbs (capt), S Payne; G Henson, S Martens; D Morris, G Jenkins, B Evans, T Maullin, L Jones, G Lewis, D Thomas, H. Jenkins.
Reps: R Jones, N Witkowski, M Taylor, P Dunkley, J Marsters, J Bater, Tenconi.

Neath: S Connor; D Dewdney, D Tiueti, J Storey, K James; L Jarvis, P Horgan; D Jones, B Williams, A Millward, S Martin, G Llewellyn (capt), A Mocelutu, B Sinkinson, N Bonner-Evans.
Reps: S Williams, A Bateman, S Jones, S Tandy, A Moore, R Phillips, A Jones.

Referee: Gareth Simmonds (WRU).