Pontypridd v Narberth – Match Preview
Pontypridd RFC are back in action this Saturday 12th October after a one week hiatus, the Valley Commandos welcome Narberth RFC to Sardis Road for a 2:30pm kick-off in the Admiral Premiership.
The two clubs have only ever met once and that was in the Welsh Cup, just a few months shy of nearly 19 years ago. Back on 14th January 2006 Ponty ran out comfortable 50-0 winners against The Otters at Sardis Road.
Narberth enjoyed a successful season last year and were promoted to this season’s Premiership as champions of Championship West at the end of 2023/24. Ponty and Narberth have had contrasting starts to this season to date – Ponty have won all three of their league matches whilst Narberth have lost all three of theirs, however, they will feel that on another day they could have won at least two. Pontypridd will be looking to extend their winning run in the league to four matches on Saturday as they try and narrow the gap to Merthyr at the top of the Premiership table, pob lwc bois!
The Team News…
Ponty have made three changes and one positional switch to the XV that played Newbridge two Saturdays ago, and they all come in forwards. Ben Drew and Dylan Kelly are drafted in for starts in the front row, whilst Mitch Barnard starts at second-row allowing Joe Miles to switch to his favoured no.8 berth. The back-line remains unchanged.
On the bench there are three new faces in the matchday squad, one of which could make his Ponty debut. There are returns to the twenty-three for Dan Cotterell and Sam Talbot, and there’s a potential Club bow for Canadian hooker Jeff Young.
In terms of absentees, Ioan Evans and Garyn Daniel are still making progress in their quest to return from injury, and they have been joined in the treatment room by Rob Jones and Joe Davies. Ben Stephens is unavailable as he is away on leave.
The Pontypridd team selected to play Narberth is as follows:
15. Dale Stuckey. 14. Charlie Morgan-Stephens. 13. Stuart Floyd-Ellis. 12. Garyn Smith. 11. Louis Rochefort-Shugar. 10. Jacob Symes. 9. Joel Raikes.
1. Ben Drew. 2. Dylan Kelly. 3. Morgan Bosanko. 4. Mitch Barnard. 5. Kristian Parker. 6. Cai James. 7. Cally James (c). 8. Joe Miles.
Subs: 16. Jeff Young. 17. Dan Cotterell. 18. Kian Mattravers. 19. Will Jameson. 20. Lloyd Riley. 21. Lucus Welch. 22. Jaydan Pugh. 23. Sam Talbot.
SUPPORTER INFORMATION:
Tickets – Admission on Saturday will be £12 full, £10 concession access-all-areas and under 16’s free if accompanied by a paying adult. You can purchase tickets on the day or to save time (which is recommended to miss the queues) you can use our online e-Ticket system, here’s the link which includes all our different packages – Pontypridd v Narberth – 12/10/2024
Supporter access is via the Clubhouse end of the ground only.
Season Tickets – For supporters who have not yet received their season tickets, they will be available for collection before the match at the front doors of the Sardis Road Clubhouse.
Live Sport In The Clubhouse – Our Clubhouse will be open from midday onwards and we will be showing live coverage of back-to-back rugby matches from the Gallagher Premiership. Firstly Gloucester play Bath, kick-off 3:05pm and this is followed by Leicester versus Northampton which kicks off at 5:30pm.
Ole!
