Pontypridd

[marshomano]

Lee Davies rings the changes for Ebbw’s first home game of the Principality campaign against Pontypridd on Friday night.
While Ebbw were winning at Bargoed last Saturday, Ponty lost at home to Bedwas, but will be keen to repeat last season’s success at ECP.
Lee said, “We are keen to build on last week’s winning start with an improved performance against Pontypridd.

Pontypridd always has a personal feel for me as many of the boys I have coached through Coleg y Cymoedd now play at the club, also my good friend and colleague Gareth Wyatt coaches the team. So staff room bragging rights are at stake!

As a management team we have picked a team we feel can execute the game plan to get the result on Friday evening. Again we have given boys an opportunity to show they’re quality and capable of playing at this level. We welcome player/coach Ashley Sweet into the starting line up. Joining him is Ebbw Vale former player Dorian Jones, who is hugely passionate about the club and I am sure will give his all for the cause.
These boys are joined by Dragons academy players Will Talbot Davies and Tom Hoppe who will play his first game for the club. Good luck Tom.

We are confident in an improved performance on Friday evening and hope you can join us for what I am sure will be an exciting fixture.”

The Steelmen line up is: Dan Haymond, Steffan Thomas, Srdan Majkic, Dom Franchi, Will Talbot-Davies; Dorian Jones, Dai Jones; Joel Harries, Joe Franchi, Rob Sevenoaks; Kristian Parker, Ashley Sweet; Rhys Clarke, Ronny Kynes, Cameron Regan. Bench: Will Haly, Ian George, Dean Brooker, Jon Davies, Owen Jones, Carl Lewis, Dai Langdon, Tom Hoppe.

Ross Jones and Lewis Dennet are named as “travelling reserves”. Lance Randall is unavailable and Toby Fricker has not recovered from a dead leg.

Admission, as for all home Premiership matches, will be £12 (£8 concessions).

[robert rees]

It's a shame that Toby hasn't recovered in time, though the backline is still looking good.

Shame Carl won't be with is. Heard he is at keys this weekend. Great to see Ashley back, hopefully he'll solidify our set pieces.

Same for Dorian, hoping he'll get us running.

A lot of changes, but still solid squad. Great to see Joel get his start too

[jadegoodiesfridge]

After Saturday I was hoping that Lewis Dennett would start at 10.Nothing against Dorian , fine player ,but how many times this season are we going to see him in an Ebbw jersey?Another gripe, Will Talbot Davies on the wing? Hope this Dragons inference is just a flash in the pan, or maybe I'm just getting a miserable old sod in my old age .

[robert rees]

I must admit, the amount of dragons influence where we wouldn't usually have it seems a bit annoying

[shaunspikey]

The most disappointing part of tonight was that we didn't look like scoring a try ,no cutting edge in the backs ,relying on there mistakes ,line out was indifferent to say the least ,home many times did we bomb the through on there line ,scrum was as good as ever,,completely dominate ,they were far more clinical ,there second try was a beauty,and had the best player on the pitch in the winger ,looks like they've unearthed another gem ,,lots to work on for next Saturday ,onward and upward...

[Malpas69]

looks like they've unearthed another gem

Lewis Williams has been playing for them for years, scored many a good try against us including tonight's effort.

[String]

Plenty of ball, looked like an extreme lack of pace for us, especially out wide.
Discipline as well going from 5m from their line attacking, 2 stupid penalties in succession, lost 90m and concede a try.

[abergavenny plodder]

Had enough ball and chances to have won this game and Pontypridd were certainly nothing but ordinary: there again they didn,t need to be any better than that to win tonight. Several excellent chances butchered from line outs only a few metres from their line and line out was a real shambles . Joel Harris did well and promises much for the future but felt our pack although they matched Ponty and battered them at scrum time lacked an enforcer in there, someone with that bit of dog and real aggression/edge that Huddy always provided. Onto Keys on Saturday: it will be tough and they will be firm favourites but we can win. C,mon Ebbw !

[david brown]

We had two spells in each half camped in their 22 ,yet never looked remoretly like scoring a try.As stated above the lineouts were a joke ,what an earth has gone wrong with our driving line out ? Since the new rule change we have not adapted ,tonight we blew 5 chances near their line .Still one dimential behind the scrum with some shocking passing,All in all ,it was a bad day at the office.Much hard work to be done ,but in the words of an old song ,THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER.???

[robert rees]

We looked awful today.

Lineouts were unusually crap, we looked predictable in attack thanks to slow ball from Dai or flat lines/poor kicking from Dorian. Disappointed with the way that partnership turned out tonight. Id personally look at Carl Lewis and Lewis Dennett there.

Our lack of cutting edge really disappointed me tonight. We have to improve massively ahead of keys.

Although I understand there were reasons for a few changes why did we alter a side so much that looked promising for a long period vs bargoed

[jadegoodiesfridge]

I think we are going to see more of the same Rob at least until January due to this East / West split.Bonus points are dare I say it , pointless.And even if we lose every game until the merge we'd still only be at the most 5 points off the top .So I expect to see relentless squad rotation until then until the coaches have a real idea as to which is our strongest 23.As for last night's game,very disappointed. And isn't it ironic,had Cammies try stood at the end .we probably would have won.

[jadegoodiesfridge]

OK....maybe more than 5 points ( at the most 8 )…...but you catch my drift

[valleyblues]

7 at most mate

[viewfromthestand]

I thought we butchered about five try scoring chances in the first 25 minutes. Then we seemed to drop off the pace and off to sleep. We made a very mediocre Ponty side look good. We give away a penalty every time there is a ruck and have been doing so in every game I ve seen this season .The only one I ve missed was Chinnor away. Our lineout was poor . We don t seem to learn when things go wrong . IE lose one lineout fair enough lose more change something. We dominated the scrum and the once we got the rolling maul sorted we drove Ponty back at a decent rate of speed. Lots of work to be done. Namely, get more streetwise , work on discipline and get the lineout functioning. Its early days for the new coaches and players and I m sure we will get it right in the next month. Dorian was not at his best last night and I feel for our young outside halves being denied game time because the dragons need their players to get match time. Cross Keys up next never an easy day , we need to get some of our failings from last night sorted pdq this week.

[jadegoodiesfridge]

7 at most mate

As I said...you catch my drift