Match Preview – Aberavon v Pontypridd

This Saturday 3rd December Pontypridd travel to play Aberavon in the Welsh Cup, the match at the Talbot Athletic Ground kicks off at 2:30pm.

There’s a new format for the Welsh National Cup this season with all 12 Premiership clubs split into 4 pools of 3 teams and it’s all still to play for in Ponty’s pool. It’s the final match in Group B on Saturday and for Ponty to top the pool and go through it’s a straightforward scenario – only a win will do, and a win that also denies Aberavon any sort of losing bonus point – the Valley Commandos will know that only a complete 80-minute performance will suffice.

Saturday will be Ponty’s first visit to the Talbot Athletic ground in over 4 years! The last time the two clubs met in Port Talbot, on Saturday 15th September 2018 Ponty were on the wrong side of a 25-19 reverse.

This season the two clubs locked horns at Sardis Road back in October, Aberavon won the contest 33-18 – for Ponty Joe Miles and Nathan Huish crossed for a try apiece whilst Joseph Scrivens kicked 8 points.

Team news…

Pontypridd have made five changes to the team that started against Newport a week last Friday. There are three changes in the backs – Joseph Scrivens returns to the squad and starts at fullback. Rory Harries earns a start at scrum-half and the big news is the return to the club of Ben Burnell who starts at outside-half. Ben has re-joined Pontypridd RFC long-term having been re-allocated to the club by Cardiff Rugby.

Up front it’s ‘as you were’ for the front-five, the two personnel changes and one positional all come in the back-row – Cally James switches to open-side flanker with brother Cai coming back in to start at blind-side and Joe Miles returns to the starting XV at no.8.

On the bench there are returns to the matchday squad for Lucus Welsch and Jordan Howells, the latter having recovered from an injury sustained against Merthyr a few weeks ago.

The Pontypridd team selected to play Aberavon is as follows:

15. Joseph Scrivens. 14. Niko Matawalu. 13. Tommy Morgan. 12. Ceri Morris. 11. Dale Stuckey. 10. Ben Burnell. 9. Rory Harries

1. Ben Stephens. 2. Rob Jones. 3. Tom Harper. 4. Kris Parker (c). 5. James Little. 6. Cai James. 7. Cally James. 8. Joe Miles

Subs: 16. Nathan Huish. 17. Garyn Daniel. 18. Morgan Bosanko. 19. Mitch Barnard. 20. Sion Parry. 21. Lucus Welch. 22. Jordan Howells. 23. Lloyd Rowlands

Ground information…

Ponty Fans, the address for your sat-nav is Talbot Athletic Ground, Manor Street, SA13 1AB.

Your support will really make the difference this Saturday as the team look to keep their Welsh Cup dream alive!