Head Coach Column: Leighton Jones

Friday 09th November 2018
 

We will play just two games in November due to Wales' Autumn internationals and it's a period we need to manage carefully. There are pros and cons to the period, but we are very much treating it with a glass half full mentality.

We currently have the likes of Matthew Jones, Jamie Jeune and Michael Herbert out with injuries and this break ensures they won't miss as many games as could have been the case at other times of the year. They are all due back around the festive period or early in the new year and will have plenty of opportunities to get back up to speed ahead of what is going to be a pivotal first half of 2019 for the club.

For the fit lads in the squad, this period is all about managing their workloads and allowing them a chance to refresh where appropriate. Following the club's victory over Maesteg Harlequins RFC, the team were given a week off and they returned this week chomping at the bit ahead of our return to action this weekend.

Tomorrow, we travel to Trebanos Park to take on Trebanos RFC and they are a team we’ll take extremely seriously. Last season, we were lucky to come away from Trebanos with a victory, eventually registering a 27-24 win.

As a team, they tend to put width on the ball and we will have to be on the money defensively, with our line speed and work in the contact area set to be big focuses for us in West Wales.

Myself and the coaching staff have elected to make a few changes from the side that beat Maesteg Harlequins and I’m pleased with how we’ve been able to balance our squad this season. We are lucky to have strength in depth at the club and I'm particularly pleased that we have reached a point where anyone in the squad could come into the match-day squad and do the job that is asked of them.

Following the game in West Wales, we enter another rest week. This will hopefully see us engage in live training sessions with some of the local clubs that we have built good relationships with over the last couple of years.

That will hopefully help to prepare us for our home game against second-place Cardiff Met RFC at the end of the month. We play both the students and third-place Ystrad Rhondda RFC at Pontypool Park before the end of 2018, in what will be vitally important fixtures as we continue to push for promotion.

 

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