Neath’s last home game attracted the biggest club crowd of the season when five and a half thousand watched the Welsh All Blacks defeat Aberavon 43-12 at The Gnoll on Boxing Day and Neath are anticipating another healthy crowd today.
With Jonathan Spratt and Steve Tandy stepping up to Ospreys duty in Dublin, Neath will make changes. However, the stomach bug that sidelined Martin Jones, Martyn Morgan and James Merriman over Christmas has abated while flanker Andy Llewellyn returns after injury. 17 year old winger Kristian Phillips who made a highly promising debut against Aberavon is also included.
Coach Rowland Phillips said, “We were delighted to get the maximum 10-point return from our Christmas games. The 43-12 win over Aberavon was witnessed by an excellent crowd and the vast majority of the spectators went away happy so we hope to see them back for the Llanelli game.
“The 27-14 success at Swansea was a reward for the hard work of the team as a whole. Playing two games in four days is never easy especially when they are local derbies and the boys showed tremendous spirit in keeping going to clinch the bonus point right at the end.
“We are excited about the visit of Llanelli who invariably pose a challenge and again it will be a question of us putting in the hard work and seeking to improve from game to game.”
Neath (from): G King, N Clapham, K Phillips, A Bevan, K James, S Thomas, H Thomas, A Thomas, G Jones, G Williams, G James, N Downs, M Jones, J Thomas, A James, A Littlehales, J Richards, C Mitchell, R Davies, E Evans, S Martin, M Morgan, J Merriman, G Gravell, A Llewellyn, L Beach (Capt), G.Price
Llanelli: Alec Jenkins; Ifan Evans, Jonathan Davies, Rhys Williams, Matthew Jacob; Dan Evans, Lee Williams; Ian Jones, Dan George, Peter Edwards, Adam Powell, Dominic Day, Luke Jones, Jonathan Edwards (Capt), Dan Godfrey
Replacements: Shaun Hopkins, John Davies, Kyle Davies, Rob McCusker, Nick Cudd, Luke Marsh, Richard Thomas
