Newport were impressive winners over Connacht A in last week’s opening fixture while Keys were soundly beaten away at English Championship side Newcastle.
Back at Pandy Park though, Keys will be different opposition and will be a tough team to beat. Greg Woods’ side have still got numerous injury and suspension problems througout the squad. They make a total of four changes to the side that started at Newcastle last weekend.
Coming in to the starting line-up are Nathan Williams who returns from a broken hand to face his former side, Dorian Jones, Ryan James and Dragons flanker Nic Cudd. Tom Lampard is named amongst the replacements and could make his return after a frustrating summer of injuries. Such are Keys injury problems that hooker Gerwyn Price is selected at inside centre.
After playing at openside flanker in recent games due to the absence of suspended captain Rob Nash, it will be interesting to see how Price copes as part of the backline.
Newport dominate the head-to-head record between the two sides since they first met in 1910 when Newport ran out 24-6 winners at Rodney Parade. Since then the clubs have met 143 times with Newport recording 99 wins to Keys 28 with 16 drawn matches.
Despite their poor record, Cross Keys did in fact record the double over the Black & Ambers in the Premiership last season and will be looking for a similar result tomorrow.
Cross Keys: 15 Gareth David 14 Elliot Jones 13 Nathan Williams 12 Gerwyn Price 11 Nathan Trowbridge 10 Dorian Jones 9 Ryan James (c), 1 Anthony Lott 2 Garry Horrigan 3 Craig Gould 4 Danny Hodge 5 Ollie Hodge 6 Rhys Peebles 7 Nic Cudd 8 Adam Powell.
Replacements: Tom Lampard, Marc Jones, James Johnstone, Scott Matthews, Jonathan Lewis, Dean Gunter, Rhys Dyer.
Newport: TBC
