Ebbw Vale ended their first season back in the Premiership as second placed team, earning them home advantage against third placed Keys in the play-off for a place in next week’s Principality Premiership Final against Pontypridd.
“It’s a huge day for Gwent rugby,” said Woods. “Ebbw Vale have been the real success story of the Premiership this season and fully deserve to be second. They have been excellent and their forward pack has been dominant across the league. We’ve got a good pack of forwards too so that will definitely be a key battle in who comes out on top on the day.
“We’ve each won our away match this season, so we’ve got to take confidence from that.
“Ebbw Vale are certainly worthy of their home advantage in this semi-final but Eugene Cross Park is a great place to play and we’ve got nothing to fear in going there. Ebbw will be well supported by a fanatical crowd but the trains will be full from Cross Keys up the valley to Ebbw Vale on Saturday so hopefully there’ll be a decent black and white contingent making some noise for us on the terraces too. We’ll be looking to pull on the experience of the players and our captain to get us across the line and book a place in the final.”
Keys beat Carmarthen Quins 31-20 away from home in last year’s Play-Off semi-final but were second best at Sardis Road in the final, losing 38-17 to Pontypridd.Woods says his team are keen to go one step further and take home some silverware this time around.
“It’s great we are showing enough consistency to be competing for trophies in consecutive seasons at the business end of the season. However, it’s certainly a case of unfinished business. We’ve reached the semis of the Cup and League again so we just need to give it a final push towards the finish line now.
“I think we have a two or three year window with this group of players but we’ve certainly got to up our game this weekend.”
