1976 saw a disappointing crowd of 7,000 at Cardiff Arms Park. Llanelli arrived without their stars and a man short having to borrow Ian Walsh from Pontypridd who had already played in the preliminary round. As an experiment the WRU awarded more money to the teams who progressed furthest in the competition. Bath replaced Neath who were on tour in the West Indies, joining Gala and Moseley as guest teams. Newport won through to their 14th final to meet old rivals Cardiff.

Newport’s team was : Gareth Evans, David Burcher (capt), Leighton Davies (replacing injured Jeff Martin after 1st Rd), Allen Evans, Jeff Squire, Geoff Evans and Brian Lease.

Chris Camilleri, who went on to win the Everson Award, opened the scoring for Cardiff and Gerald Davies converted. He then dummied from a tapped penalty and ran 65 yds to score a try converted by G Davies. Leighton Davies then scored to make the score 12-4 at HT. He then scored again but Cardiff fly half Danny Wilson slipped away to score a try again converted by G Davies and make the final score 18-8.

Abertillery 22-6 W
Bath 24-12 W
Cross Keys 20-6 W
Cardiff 8-18 L