Behind the scrum, powerhouse winger Kevin James returns to the right wing while up front there are starts for lock Jonny Griffiths, No.8 Lee Evans and flanker Emyr Williams.
Further good news for head coach Patrick Horgan is that speedster Chris Morgans and lock Lee Williams are also back in the frame and on the replacements’ bench against Ponty.
“The return of four quality players will make a big difference and the squad as a whole is really looking forward to the challenge of taking on the champions,” said Horgan.
“Neath against Pontypridd is probably the most atmospheric game on our fixture list these days and we are expecting one of our biggest crowds of the season with dry weather forecast.”
Games between the two clubs, who have been standard bearers for the club game in Wales over the past 10 years, are traditionally hard fought and evenly contested with Saturday’s game expected to be no different.
In three close encounters last season, Ponty won both away fixtures, in the league and cup but then conceded defeat on home ground.
Neath have not enjoyed the best of starts to the current campaign and lie eighth in the league with two wins and three defeats.
Ponty meanwhile are unbeaten and hold fourth place with a game in hand on the two clubs directly above them.
In a bid to maintain that momentum, Ponty welcome back Adam Thomas from Wales Sevens duties to claim the full back shirt and scrum half Lewis Jones from regional duties with the Blues for his first club start of the season.
Squad rotation remains the name of the game with ten changes made from the starting line up in the home win over Bridgend last weekend. Dai Flanagan retains the number 10 shirt, the only player to have started every league game so far for Pontypridd.
Still out injured are winger Chris Clayton, recovering from a back operation, fly half Simon Humberstone and prop Pat Palmer with groin and knee strains respectively.
Neath: 15 A Bramwell 14 K James 13 R Evans 12 G McCarthy 11 G King 10 D Langdon 9 B Jones, 1 N Downs 2 R Clancy 3 T Price 4 E Evans 5 J Griffiths 6 G Gravell (c) 7 L Evans 8 E Williams.
Replacements: O Ford, A Williams, J Reeves, L Williams, R Jones, L Ward, T Morgan, J Howells, C Morgans.
Pontypridd: 15 Adam Thomas 14 Lewis I Williams 13 Gavin Dacey 12 Dafydd Lockyer 11 Matthew Nuthall 10 Dai Flanagan 9 Lewis Jones, 1 Stuart Williams 2 Huw Dowden 3 Keiron Jenkins 4 Cory Hill 5 Chris Dicomidis (c) 6 Jake Thomas 7 Wayne O’Connor 8 Dan Godfrey.
Replacements: Gareth James, Lewis K Williams, Gareth Wyatt, Darran Harris, Tom Hetherington, Craig Locke, Scott Roberts, Chris Phillips.
Referee: Mr. Ian Davies (Porthcawl)
