Match Preview – Neath v Pontypridd

On Saturday 30th September Pontypridd RFC travel to The Lextan Gnoll to play Neath RFC, the Indigo Group Premiership match kicks off at 2:30pm.

Saturday sees the end of a near-five year hiatus between Ponty and the Welsh All Blacks and the resumption of a rivalry between the two most successful clubs during the ‘semi-professional’ era of Welsh rugby. Pontypridd last visited the Gnoll on Friday 8th February 2019 and came away with a 45-0 win that evening.

By the time this Saturday evening is upon us both teams will be hoping to have registered their first ‘W’ of the season in the wins column in the league table whilst looking to build some momentum in the process.

The Team News…

…and the bad news is that Ponty’s already lengthy injury list shows no sign of shortening. The Valley Commandos have made three personnel changes and three positional switches to the starting XV following last week’s physical battle with Merthyr.

In the backline it’s one in, one out – Will Keep returns from injury to replace the injured Garyn Smith in the centre, which sees Ryan Wilkins switching to 13.

In the forwards there’s a welcome return from injury for Aled Ward who starts at openside flanker. The knock-on from that is captain Kristian Parker moves to blindside flanker allowing Macauley Cook to move back into the boiler room with Mitch Barnard. In the front row Rob Jones is drafted back in to start at hooker.

On the bench Kian Mattravers, Morgan Bosanko, Will Gregory, Joel Raikes, Joseph Scrivens and Ceri Morris are all present again. They are joined by second row Garyn Davies who is on permit from Ystrad Rhondda and hooker Mitch Savage who is on permit from Abercynon.

Joining Niko Matawalu, Cally James, Sion Parry, James Murphy, Cai James and Tom Devine in the treatment room are Garyn Smith and Curtis Greenslade whilst Chris Dicomidis is away on leave.

The Pontypridd team selected to play Neath is as follows:

15. Liam Lloyd. 14. McCauley Rowley. 13. Ryan Wilkins. 12. Will Keep. 11. Dale Stuckey. 10. Josh Phillips. 9. Harvey Nash.

1. Ben Stephens. 2. Rob Jones. 3. Tom Harper. 4. Mitch Barnard. 5. Macauley Cook. 6. Kristian Parker (c). 7. Aled Ward. 8. Joe Miles.

Subs: 16. Mitch Savage. 17. Kian Mattravers. 18. Morgan Bosanko. 19. Garyn Davies. 20. Will Gregory. 21. Joel Raikes. 22. Joseph Scrivens. 23. Ceri Morris

Good luck Saturday lads!

GROUND LOCATION –

The postcode required for your sat-navs for the Lextan Gnoll is SA11 3BU.