TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT – MERTHYR RFC v PONTYPRIDD RFC

Team Announcement – Merthyr RFC v Pontypridd RFC

Following a well earned break, we now enter Round 10 of the Principality Premiership. This weeks game see’s Pontypridd RFC travel the short distance up the A470 to meet close rivals Merthyr RFC at Y Wern.

In their first meeting of this season it doesn’t get much bigger than this. Pontypridd are sitting in second place in the Premiership after a smashing performance beating Cross Keys 73 points to 12 in their last game.

Reigning Premiership Champions sit at the top of the table with 8 wins from 9 games after seeing off rivals Ebbw Vale 20 points to 0 in their last encounter.

This game is going to be a cracker and won’t be for the faint heated where rivalry is high amongst the both sides sitting first and second in the table.

The team sees a number of changes again this week with the welcome return of Gary Williams coming back from Injury to take up his place at full back, this allows Dale Stuckey to go back to his more familiar role on the wing.

With Dafydd Lockyer and Ceri Sweeney representing the Lions in the Bermuda Classics, Gabriel Davies steps into the number 12 shirt and Lewis K Williams comes off the bench to take up the position at outside half with Huw Rees returning at Scrum Half.

Both halfbacks from the last game Ben Jones and Dane Blacker have been included in the Wales 7’s squad. So a massive congratulations to these two youngsters.

In the pack Rhys Shellard returns to the starting line up after recovering from a calf strain and Sean Moore moves from the second row to the other flank with Shay Smallman coming back into the team to fill the vacated second row position.

With Corey Domachowski picking up an Injury, Ian George steps back into the front row joining back up with Gareth Smith and Geraint Clarke.

Substitutions sees Joel Raikes returning to the squad following vacation and Jordan Rees and Wales Under 18’s Dafydd Thomas being drafted back in.

TEAM SHEET PONTYPRIDD RFC

15 Gary Williams, 14 Alex Webber, 13 Alex Knott, 12 Gabriel Davies, 11 Dale Stuckey, 10 Lewis Williams, 9 Huw Rees, 8 Steffan Jenkins, 7 Rhys Shellard, 6 Sean Moore, 5 Chris Dicomidis, 4 Shay Smallman, 3 Gareth  Smith, 2 Geraint Clarke,1 Ian George

Substitute Name

16 Robert Jones,17 Huw Owen, 18 Luke  Leddington, 19 Lloyd Evans, 20 Morgan Sieniawski, 21 Joel Raikes, 22 Jordan  Rees, 23 Dafydd Thomas