Last season’s double winners Pontypridd face a second home game in five days as they welcome Bridgend to Sardis Road while there’s an interesting West Wales derby between Llanelli and Carmarthen Quins.
With a busy start to this season’s fixture schedule, Pontypridd rotate their squad for their clash with the Ravens. The two clubs experienced contrasting fortunes on the opening weekend of the season. Pontypridd battled hard to secure a bonus point victory over Bedwas with Alex Webber’s hat-trick proving vital while Bridgend succumbed to a heavy home defeat against Carmarthen Quins.
Dale McIntosh’s side have recent history in their favour – they completed a league double over the Ravens last season, scoring 78 points along the way.
McIntosh makes sweeping changes to his line up for Wednesday night’s clash with only four survivors from the 15 who started the win over Bedwas.
One of those, Wales Under 18 back Aled Summerhill, moves from centre to full back with senior debuts given to centre Garyn Smith and flanker Thomas Young.
Young hooker Liam Belcher may well feature as a replacement while first starts of the new season are given to winger Gareth Wyatt, centre Gary Williams, scrum half Joel Raikes, lock Jordan Sieniawski and flanker Tom Hetherington. Chris Dicomidis again leads the side.
For Bridgend, head coach Ben Rose is hoping his side can put together an 80 minute performance despite seeing a remarkable 16 players out with injury.
Captain Alex Jones is the latest victim, the Bridgend captain aggravating an elbow injury against the Quins which he first sustained against Neath earlier this month. Jones joins the likes of Adam Hillier Rees Hicks on the sidelines and with more than an entire side out injured, Rose is short of a number of options.
He is though, able to call on three Ospreys squad players in Jamie Murphy, Ross Jones and Arthur Ellis as well as Wales Under 20 international Dan Suter.
“The squad were disappointed with the display on Saturday and have a great chance to put things right against Pontypridd,” said Rose.
“We have prepared well all pre-season and we expected a better display against Carmarthen.
“We’re not taking anything away from the Quins – they were excellent and took their opportunities well, but we expect more.
“With our current injury list a number of boys will be backing up to play on Wednesday so we expect them to be bitter about the performance – we need to put it right.
“Pontypridd are a good side and Sardis is a formidable place to go so the boys will need to bounce back and stay tight to put in a better performance.”
At Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli host Carmarthen Quins in a re-run of their British & Irish Cup play-off clash two weeks ago.
Anthony Buchanan’s side edged that game by a single point before both sides got their league campaigns off to a winning start. Llanelli hit Neath with a late sucker punch to win at The Gnoll while the Quins put 45 points on Bridgend.
It means both sides should go into the game full of confidence though if the last meeting between the two sides is anything to go by, it looks sure to be a close-run affair.
The Quins have named a young side for the encounter with Will Boyde starting at flanker and Josh Helps, the Wales Under 18 captain, making his Premiership debut in the second row. Jevan Sebastian comes in on the bench, with Carwyn Jones, Gareth Thomas and Sion Bennett, who all represented Wales Under 20 last year, also in the squad.
The young guns are complimented by some experience with Rhodri Wells and Craig Evans at half back and Rhys Williams captaining the side from inside centre.
Pontypridd: 15 Aled Summerhill 14 Gareth Wyatt 13 Garyn Smith 12 Gary Williams 11 Matthew Nuthall 10 Dai Flanagan 9 Joel Raikes, 1 James Howe 2 Huw Dowden 3 Keiron Jenkins 4 Jordan Sieniawski 5 Chris Dicomidis (c) 6 Thomas Young 7 Tom Hetherington 8 Jake Thomas.
Replacements: Lloyd Williams, Simon Humberstone, Gavin Dacey, Liam Belcher, Owen Sheppeard, Lee Williams, Lewis Jones, Stuart Williams.
Bridgend: 15 Jamie Murphy 14 Tom Grabham 13 Nathan Edwards 12 Steve Winn (c) 11 Ross Jones 10 James Dixon 9 Chris Williams, 1 Gary Carpenter 2 Matt Dwyer 3 Daniel Suter 4 Owain Lloyd 5 Ben Jones 6 Jon Vaughan 7 Arthur Ellis 8 Scott Hicks.
Replacements: Jac Hopkins, Rhodri Apsee, Joseph Lewis, Nicholas Huntley, David Barry, Sion Hopkins, Lewis Williams, Owen Howe.
Llanelli: 15 Steffan Evans 14 Dafydd Lewis 13 James Griffiths 12 Jonathan Lewis 11 Gareth Walters 10 Joshua Lewis 9 Jak Evans, 1 Rhys Thomas 2 Craig Hawkins 3 Benjamin Leung 4 Adam Powell (c) 5 Nathan White 6 Duane Eager 7 Daniel Thomas 8 Craig Price.
Replacements: Sean Hopkins, Kirby Myhill, Gareth Havard, Emyr Williams, Stuart Leach, Owain Morgan, Scott Maynard, Rhys Davies.
Carmarthen Quins: 15 Howard Thomas 14 Christopher Banfield 13 Dylan Morgans 12 John Williams (c) 11 Tomos Rees 10 Craig Evans 9 Rhodri Wells, 1 Gareth Thomas 2 Gethin Robinson 3 Trystan Davies 4 Carwyn Jones 5 Josh Helps 6 William Boyde 7 Elis Lloyd 8 Luke Joseph.
Replacements: Steffan Phillips, Rhodri Clancy, Javan Sebastian, Aidan Laxton, Sion Bennett, Huw John Rees, Rhys Thomas, James Stephenson.
