Pontypridd are still in the running for three titles – the Principality Premiership and the British and Irish Cup along with the SWALEC Cup – but the SWALEC Cup, with the final on Monday 2 May, is the first opportunity to bag a trophy.
Wyatt, who is stand-in skipper on Saturday for lock Chris Dicomidis, will draw on his wealth of experience this weekend.
“It’s a huge honour to lead out Pontypridd but we will miss Dico on Saturday both on and off the field. Hopefully we can get the win and he will be back in time for the final,” he said.
“It’s important we get some silverware this season, and the biggest thing on our minds at the moment is beating Swansea on Saturday. We’re currently still in three competitions, but after such a good run, it would be a real shame to come away with nothing now.
“Swansea are a well organised outfit and have a lot of good players. Some might say we were lucky to get past Merthyr in our last game but the boys are confident of putting in a good performance.”
Club captain Chris Dicomidis added: “We couldn’t have asked for a better season, everyone’s ecstatic with how it’s gone. I think that’s down to the great team spirit at the club, I think we would all die for each other! We enjoy training together, we socialise together, and the fans have been brilliant, they’ve certainly got us through a few tight games this season.”
Pontypridd make just three changes to the starting line-up which got the better of Swansea last time out.
Winger Owen Williams and flanker Wayne O’Connor return from recent injury and centre Adam Thomas from Wales Sevens duties. Thomas steps into a midfield gap vacated by fellow centre Gavin Dacey, who will be away on his engagement party.
Swansea coach Richard Webster meanwhile aims to meet fire with fire when his side comes up against the Principality Premiership leaders.
“Ponty have huge strengths, especially in the contact area, and we’ll have to meet fire with fire if we’re going to win.
“The resolve we showed to come back having been so far down against Newport in the quarters shows the character in the side, and we’ve certainly got the ability to go all the way if we play to the best of our ability.
“I played in two cup finals and lost them both so on a personal level I’d love to get to the final and win it.
“We have some old heads including Rhys Jones on the right wing, and some young pace with the likes of Nicky Thomas and Matthew Morgan. The Arms Park, is a nice, wide pitch and with both sides wanting to play an open brand of rugby, we should see an attractive game on Saturday.”
Pontypridd 15.Gareth Wyatt – cpt. 14.Owen Williams. 13.Adam Thomas. 12.Dafydd Lockyer. 11.Chris Clayton. 10.Simon Humberstone. 9.Lewis Jones; 1.Ken Knaggs. 2.Huw Dowden. 3.Ryan Harford. 4.Cory Hill. 5.Ryan Savage. 6.Ed Siggery. 7.Wayne O’Connor. 8.Owen Sheppeard.
Replacements: Garyn Lucas; Dean Gunter; Matthew Nuthall; Tom Hetherington; Darren Waters; Craig Locke; Sam Hobbs.
Swansea: 15 James Dixon 14 Rhys Jones (Capt) 13 Chris Shelmerdine 12 Dai Watts 11 Nicky Thomas 10 Matthew Morgan 9 Rhodri Wells; 1 Lee May 2 Scott Baldwin 3 Andrew Clatworthy 4 Sam Kiley (Capt) 5 James Goode 6 Steffan Jones 7 Sam Lewis 8 Rory Pitman
Replacements: 16 Alun Rees 17 Roy Jones 18 Paul Arnold 19 Ben Fox 20 Phil Tucker 21 Nicky Harwood 22 James Garland
