Trebanos RFC v Pontypool RFC

Pontypool continue their travels with another trip west, this time to Trebanos Park, the home of Trebanos RFC.

It’s the second in a run of three away games and comes a fortnight after the big victory over Neath RFC at The Gnoll.

After such a bruising and battling encounter, centre Pat Lewis believes the break may have benefited the players.

“It was a bit of a strange one but I went on holiday so that break was good for me,” said Lewis.

“It was obviously a very physical game so it was probably good to have an extra week to rest and recover.

“It hasn’t gone against us in any way.”

Despite being on a string of away days, Lewis always feels the presence of the Pooler faithful and believes they have a huge part to play in the club achieving its ambitions this season.

“There’s nothing like playing at Pontypool Park, especially when it is packed,” said Lewis, who has nine tries this season.

“The Pontypool family are great but going away does test your resolve as a team a bit.

“In all fairness we do travel quite well in terms of support but playing away does represent a different challenge.

“You could sense that at Neath.

“I’ve seen a couple of comments that even though Neath have a very strong fanbase, they were outnumbered and outsung in the stands so you have to pay a massive respect to our supporters.

“It’s a massive benefit.

“You can see when we have been up against it in some games, Bargoed at home when we were 20-0 down, Bargoed away when we were 14-0 down.

“Even against Neath when it did get really tight in the second half they were like the 16^th man but there is that many of them it feels more like a 20^th man.

“There’s no point going up if you haven’t got a loyal band of supporters and just as promotion is important to us as players and the staff, it’s massively important to the fans as well, which is why they turn out the way they do.”

There are seven changes for tomorrow’s game.

Sam Cochrane returns to the front row with Adam Brown bolstering the second row.

Captain Scott Matthews slots back in at number eight.

In the backs, Owain Leonard comes in at scrum half, Duan Thomas starts at centre, Mathew Powell is on the wing while Huw Anderson is back in the team at full back.