Meek sends out clear message ahead of play-off clash

Pontypool RFC back Kieran Meek has sent out a clear message that the club are ready and raring to go ahead of their play-off showdown against the team that finish 12th in the Principality Premiership, writes Andrew Deering.

The club came up agonisingly short in their battle to earn promotion to an expanded Premiership in 2016 and have spent the last three seasons on the outside looking in, with the top league ring-fenced. With promotion to the Premiership once again a possibility, the club is ready to prove they are ready to play in a league they last occupied in 2012.

Pooler's opponents are not yet known, with Bridgend Ravens' trip to Sardis Road to face Pontypridd RFC this weekend set to decide the final league standings near the foot of the table.

Meek, who joined the club from Newbridge RFC in 2016, believes Pooler have proved themselves in the WRU National Championship. "It has been a long three years since the start of ring-fencing in 2016, but we have worked extremely hard in that time and now find ourselves in a good place and in with a shot of earning promotion.

"To pick up 65 victories from 66 games and to have set a new record of 47 straight victories in the division is testament to the standards that we have set ourselves." said Meek.

Those standards have also seen the club enjoy success in the WRU National Cup. Victories over five Premiership sides in the competition have demonstrated the club's ability to compete with the best sides in the country and the squad will no doubt look to bring those experiences to the fore later this month.

At 25, the Blaina native has established himself as a mainstay of the side, featuring in all but six of Pooler's competitive games since his arrival and scoring almost 300 points in the process. With the club's promotion aspirations hinging on one final game, Meek and his team-mates will be targeting another notable performance and victory as they look to join the biggest party in town.

"We may have had a few tricky moments along the way, but we have achieved some special things and we can now look ahead to the play-off. We will be ready for whoever we face and will be raring to go."