Pontypridd v Cross Keys – Match Preview
On Friday 7th February Pontypridd RFC welcome Cross Keys RFC to Sardis Road in the Admiral Welsh Premiership, kick-off is 7:30pm.
Friday evening’s fixture is a rescheduled one with the original encounter due to have taken place on Saturday 7th December, but Storm Darragh had other ideas. The men from Pandy Park are back in the Premiership following a five year absence, and as a result it’s their first visit to Sardis Road since the 27th October 2018 – Ponty enjoyed a comprehensive 73-12 win on that particular day.
This week’s match sees 1st take on 5th in the current standings, Ponty will be hoping to make it eight consecutive wins in the league whilst Keys will be looking for the victory that could take them back into the Premiership’s top four.
TEAM NEWS:
For the second week running the Pontypridd squad has been hit with injury and unavailability, and as result there are no fewer than seven changes to the team that started at Narberth last Saturday. There’s also a positional switch in the starting XV, two new faces amongst the substitutes, two potential club debutants and two big personal appearance milestones.
There are four changes in the backline with Dale Stuckey returning at fullback following injury. It’s all-change in the halfbacks with Lucus Welch and Jaydan Pugh starting at 9 and 10, and there’s a Ponty debut at inside centre for Sam Matthews – Sam is on permit from Tondu RFC and his selection sees Ioan Evans move to outside centre.
The other three changes come in the forwards and sees Morgan Bosanko and Jeff Young recalled to the front row whilst Lloyd Riley is drafted in to start at no.8.
On the bench Dylan Kelly is recalled to the matchday squad and the other new face is backrower Rhys Emmott who is on permit from local club Llantwit Fardre RFC.
Unavailable for selection because of injury are Garyn Smith, Cai James, Stuart Floyd-Ellis and Sam Talbot, whilst Joe Miles, Rob Jones, Garyn Daniel and Charlie Morgan-Stephens are all away on leave.
As mentioned a little earlier there are two big personal appearance milestones for two Pontypridd stalwarts. Morgan Bosanko will run out and make his 100th appearance and Dale Stuckey will make his 200th appearance for Pontypridd on Friday evening – huge congratulations lads you have both given fantastic service to the Club, let’s hope for a W to celebrate!
The Pontypridd team selected to play Cross Keys is as follows:
15. Dale Stuckey. 14. Joe Davies. 13. Ioan Evans. 12. Sam Matthews. 11. Louis Rochefort-Shugar. 10. Jaydan Pugh. 9. Lucus Welch.
1. Ben Stephens. 2. Jeff Young. 3. Morgan Bosanko. 4. Mitch Barnard. 5. Ieuan Davies. 6. Kristian Parker. 7. Cally James (c). 8. Lloyd Riley.
Subs: 16. Dylan Kelly. 17. Ben Drew. 18. Kian Mattravers. 19. Rhys Emmott. 20. George Thorrington. 21. Joel Raikes. 22. Jacob Symes. 23. Oli Shepherd.
SUPPORTER INFORMATION:
Tickets – Admission on Friday 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 Cross Keys – E-tickets – 7/2/2025
Supporter access is via the Clubhouse end of the ground only.
The Bucket Collection – Friday evening’s bucket collection is for Kyle Sieniawski from the Graig, Pontypridd, aged 13. Kyle is the youngest person in Britain to be diagnosed with motor neurone disease and the bucket collection is to help fund a clinical trial and assist the family in caring for him – please dig deep and give generously to support Kyle and his family.
Live Sport In The Clubhouse – Our Clubhouse will be open at 5:30pm and we will be showing live coverage of Italy U20 v Wales U20 in the U20s Six Nations – kick off at 7:15pm. We’ll also have round-ball action when Manchester United play Leicester in the 4th Round of the F.A. Cup, kick off in that will be 8:00pm.
We look forward to welcoming both sets of supporters to Sardis Road this Friday.
The post Pontypridd v Cross Keys – Match Preview appeared first on Pontypridd-RFC.