Newbridge v Pontypridd – Matchday Preview
Next up is for Pontypridd RFC is a trip to The Welfare Ground, home of Newbridge RFC. The two clubs will lock horns on Saturday 25th January in the Admiral Premiership, kick off 2:30pm.
Saturday’s match will be Ponty’s first visit to The Welfare Ground since 27th January 2007 in the Welsh Cup, when the Valley Commandos came away with a 25-0 win that day. Our last league match at Newbridge is a few months shy of 20 years ago when, on 30/4/2005, we won by 51 points to 14.
To more recent times, the two sides met earlier this season on Saturday 28th September last year at Sardis Road. The Men from Gwent proved to be resilient opponents and made Ponty work very hard for their 22-0 win – Cai James, Louis Rochefort-Shugar and Kristian Parker scored the tries, whilst Jacob Symes kicked the other seven points.
On Saturday just gone Ponty enjoyed a big bonus-point win over Llangennech to maintain their 3-point lead at the top of the table over Neath. Newbridge were the side that played Neath at the Gnoll on Saturday and were leading 19-14 as the match entered the final ten minutes. But two late tries broke Newbridge hearts as the Welsh All Blacks secured a bonus-point win of their own. However, a late Newbridge penalty meant they headed home to The Welfare Ground with a losing bonus-point that their efforts deserved following a 28-22 reverse.
The top three teams all won with a bonus-point over the weekend, and there’s very much a ‘who will blink first’ vibe for all the clubs in pursuit of the Premiership crown. Newbridge currently occupy 10th place in the league, sitting towards the lower end of the congested mid-table positions knowing that a couple of wins will propel them up the standings.
There’s another large contingent of travelling Valley Commando support expected to head north-east to The Welfare Ground on Saturday – we’ll see you there.
SUPPORTERS TRAVEL –
The Pontypridd Supporters Club are organising travel for fans to the match on Saturday. The bus will leave Sardis Road at 1:00pm ahead of the 2:30pm kick-off. The bus will then depart Newbridge for Pontypridd at 5:30pm – don’t leave it too late to book and be disappointed, call Phil Lycett on 01443 662561.
Here’s our recent Supporters Bus article with all the finer details – Supporters Coach to Newbridge
GROUND ADDRESS –
The postcode for Newbridge’s ground is NP11 5FR.
THE PONTYPRIDD PENDRAGONS ANNIVERSARY EVENT –
The Supporters Bus will be arriving back at Sardis Road at around 6:00pm – this will be just in time for the Pontypridd Pendragons One Year Anniversary event in the Clubhouse which all supporters are invited to. Please see our recent article which has all the key information for this – Come and Celebrate with the Pendragons
