Swansea RFC v Pontypool RFC

Scott Matthews has said the squad must learn the lessons from the defeat to Newport as they look to respond this weekend.

Pooler travel down the M4 to St Helens to take on Swansea looking to avoid a third consecutive defeat in the Indigo Premiership.

While there were positive spells in the derby against the Black and Ambers, Matthews admitted they weren’t able to make their game plan count often enough.

However, rather than just ignoring the loss, the squad is looking to take as much as they can from the game to help them going forward.

“There were a few areas that we wanted to target against Newport,” said Matthews.

“The coaches have highlighted that when we did do it we got success and scored three tries.

“There are a few learnings from some of the things we didn’t do so well, as there are every week.

“Every team has things to work on and we just need to make sure we are a team that learns from things and doesn’t just sulk when the going gets tough.

“We are looking forward to a good run of fixtures and we want to try and get ourselves back in a position to win games.

“We’ve got to dust ourselves off and put the hard work into training.

“We’ve had some good wins and a couple of tough losses so we need to learn and strive for success.”

Pooler have already managed to earn victory over Swansea this season but Matthews is well aware of the challenge that awaits them in west Wales.

“They are an experienced Premiership team with a unique style of play where they like to throw the ball about," he continued.

“When they do go wide, they go with intent and can score some nice tries by doing that.

“It’s going to be a massively tough game.

“Their statistics on scoring tries from driving mauls has gone up in the last few games so we know it is going to be tough upfront but we are looking forward to the challenge.

“Set piece is going to be massive so there is emphasis on making sure that improves from the Newport game.

“Scrums have been good over the week but the lineout is somewhere that we can improve as a forward pack and making sure we are building play in the right areas.”

He also acknowledged the role the Pooler Army can play and asked them to keep the faith and help the team as they have done countless times over the years.

“I’d like to say a huge thank you to the support," said the captain.

“It was fantastic to play in front of such a big crowd and as a squad we are massively disappointed that we didn’t get the result that we all desperately wanted.

“It wasn’t down to a lack of effort or want.

“As captain I desperately wanted that win over Newport for the crowd and occasion but unfortunately Newport played some fantastic stuff on the day and when it came to us chasing the game, Newport are not a team you want to be chasing the game against.

“It was a special occasion to see the Park filled out and was further justification on what Pontypool brings to the league.

“We hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas with friends and family and are wishing everyone an equally fantastic New Year as well.

“Please continue to support us, to come and cheer the boys on and we’ll keep doing all we can to ensure there is something worth cheering for.”