Champions Neath crushed the Wanderers 52-3 last week in the opening round last weekend but the home side are confident of producing an improved performance against Ponty.
“It’s a tough baptism for our young side to follow up Neath with Pontypridd but we were heartened by our second half display last week,” commented coach Chris Ower.
“Pontypridd will provide us with a whole new set of challenges but the spirit is good and we will be looking for improvement” added manager Darren Joy.
For the second game of the season the Wanderers make three changes to the side that started the Neath game. In the pack Josh Sheehan and Mark Sheppard step off the bench to replace Aled Llewellyn and Ryan Prosser and Carl Kimber returns at No 8 after getting injured in the preseason game at Clifton. His return allows Reuben Tucker to move to his normal position of blindside flanker. Tom Rowlands, who came in late last Saturday, continues at scrum half.
A hard fought home victory over Cross Keys last weekend got the season off to a winning start for Ponty, with the aim now of building up momentum into the Wanderers game.
Games played between the Wanderers and Ponty at the Ely ground have recently been close fought affairs – the 12-18 away win for Ponty last October being a typical example.
Ponty have lost some players to injury this week, wing Lewis Williams with shoulder ligament damage, flanker Darren Waters with a calf strain, and no8 Brendan Lyons with a hip problem. These are added to long term absentees, wing Chris Clayton (hip), centre Gavin Dacey (knee),scrum halves Rhys Downes (knee) and Garyn Lucas (illness) and lock Chris Martenko (back).
Rejoining the squad having been away on leave, and straight into the starting line up, are prop Stuart Williams and second row Craig Locke.
Teams: Glamorgan Wanderers: 15. Owen Marshall 14. Rory Budina 13. Gareth Morris 12. Robin Lock 11. Ryan Healey
10. Dai Lakin 9. Tom Rowlands; 1. Marc Thomas 2. Mark Sheppard 3. Mark O’Leary 4. Richard Thomas 5. Jon Barley 6. Reuben Tucker 7. Josh Sheehan 8. Carl Kimber
Replacements: 16. Ryan Prosser 17. Darragh Cantillon 18. Gareth Tedstone 19. Aled Llewellyn 20. Ed Morris 21. Harry Trelawny 22. Lewis Johnson
Pontypridd: 15.Matthew Nuthall. 14.Gareth Wyatt. 13.Adam Thomas. 12.Dafydd Lockyer. 11.Owen Williams. 10.Simon Humberstone. 9.Kristian Baller; 1.Stuart Williams. 2.Tom Hetherington. 3.Phil Osborne. 4.Craig Locke. 5.Ryan Savage. 6.Jake Thomas. 7.Wayne O’Connor. 8.Chris Dicomidis (capt)
Replacements: Lewis Jones; Dean Gunter; Gary Williams; Huw Dowden; Ed Siggery; Calum Thomas; Will Griff John.
