The clash between last season’s Young Player of the Year at the Arms Park, Ben Thomas, and the hard-running, tough tackling Keiran Williams will be worth the admission price alone for one of the great traditional fixtures of the Welsh rugby calendar.
Williams is now happily restored to full fitness after spending five months on the sidelines after picking up a significant ankle injury playing for the Ospreys in an Anglo-Welsh Cup tie against Cardiff Blues at the Arms Park in 2017. Earlier that year he had scored five tries for Wales Under 20 and looked a superstar in the making.
He worked his way back to fitness playing for his home town club, Neath, and was back in regional action in the Celtic Cup at the start of this season. Now he is looking to kick-on and try to live up to the billing of being the “next Scott Gibbs”.
As for Thomas, his silky skills have thrust him into the limelight since leaving Cardiff & Vale College. The son of former British boxing champion Pat Thomas, he also featured in the Celtic Cup for the Blues and sat on the bench for the opening Guinness PRO14 match in Port Elizabeth last month.
His ability to break the defensive line, along with an ever improving kicking game, has marked him out as one of the most creative young backs in Wales. In tandem with fellow Wales Under 20 cap Max Llewellyn he helped guide Cardiff to their first trophy success in a decade last season when they won the WRU National cup.
Cardiff may be sitting on top of the Indigo Group Premiership after the opening two rounds, but they won’t be taking anything for granted when they host Swansea. Head coach Steve Law still remembers the feeling of losing to the Whites at St Helen’s last season in a crucial fixture. The 20-17 defeat on 13 April brought to an end an unbeaten run of 14 matches for the Blue & Blacks.
More significantly, it was probably the result that heralded the end of their chances of completing a league and cup double, handing Merthyr extra breathing space in the race to the Premiership crown.
“That defeat in Swansea was hugely costly for us and was the performance and result that did for our chances of winning the league. It was a bad day at the office for us,” admitted Law.
“We haven’t mentioned that game in the build up to this weekend, but it might get a little mention on the day. Right now it is all about getting the players back focussing on what we need to do to keep on improving.
“It hasn’t been ideal having a three week break, but we all understand the reasons why. I just hope that the small amount of momentum we had built up in our opening three matches hasn’t been totally lost.
“We’ve only got one significant injury at the moment, to lock Callum Bradbury, and we will have the Wales Under 20 second row Teddy Williams to fill that gap. Ben Thomas is also available along with our new signing Tom Habberfield.”
Swansea notched a big win over arch-rivals Llanelli, 33-5, last time out and will travel with confidence despite not having won on the road since 30 March at Carmarthen.
There are three other unbeaten teams other than Cardiff, with two of them clashing at the Talbot Athletic Ground. Aberavon are two from two, while Newport won their only fixture before the Celtic Cup break.
Llandovery beat RGC 29-20 in a thrilling game at Church Bank in their only fixture to date and will be hoping they can stand up to the ferocity of the Ebbw Vale pack when they travel to Eugene Cross Park.
The game of the day could well be at Parc Eirias, in Colwyn Bay, where Matt Silva’s side host Pontypridd. The Gogs got off to a rip-roaring start with a home win over reigning champions Merthyr, but were then pipped at Llandovery in their next game.
“It has been a long three weeks since we lost at Llandovery. All we want to do now is get stuck back into it,” said Silva.
“We’ve got our Kiwi second row back, Efan Jones has returned from duty with Scarlets A and we’re assessing the fitness of back row man Tim Grey after his time at Cardiff Blues A for the Celtic Cup. We’ve taken a look at the Ponty side and we all know it is going to be a huge game.
“The crowd up here in north Wales is mad for rugby and, with Ponty sending up a couple of bus loads, we are looking at a near 2,000 gate.”
In the other matches, Carmarthen Quins host Llanelli in the Scarlets regional derby clash and Bridgend welcome Merthyr.
Indigo Group Premiership – Round 3
Aberavon v Newport
Bridgend v Merthyr
Cardiff v Swansea
Carmarthen Quins v Llanelli
Ebbw Vale v Llandovery
RGC v Pontypridd
