The Wizards lost out to Newport in the Indigo Premiership Cup final, while the Ironmen were second best at the Arms Park last week when Cardiff completed their task of winning their last three games of the season with a bonus-point to pip Newport to the title.
Aberavon currently sit in third place, with Merthyr back in sixth. For the home side, it will be a chance to give departing coach Dale McIntosh a good send-off.
Further down the league pyramid, Neath moved to the top of the Admiral Championship as they closed their 150th anniversary season with a 20-16 home win over Cross Keys. That was enough to take them to the top of the table.
Bargoed will now get the chance to go back above them when they host Trebanos in their final fixture. They need to win to topple Neath, who are now two points clear.
Pontypool are third with two games to play, although it now seems unlikely they will get the chance to try to bridge the gap between themselves and the top two. The Gwent side made their feelings known about how the season was going to end earlier in the week having been told by the two clubs still due to face them they would not fulfil the fixtures.
Ystalyfera gave their view on the end of the season in a Tweet earlier in the week.
“Ystalyfera have decided to pull the plug on the season’s remaining games, with Beddau and Ystrad Rhondda deciding not to come to play our home games and finding a decent kick-off time to agree with Pontypool,” said the club.
“Paying out over £700 for buses for two away games with nothing to play for was not worth the club’s financial costs. As a club we feel we’ve made the correct decision based around commonsense and we fully understand all the clubs situations. We’ve made the WRU aware of our decision and all the clubs involved.”
Pontypool were going to be without their hooker Darren Hughes for the rest of the season after he broke his ankle in last weekend’s 39-21 victory at Cardiff Met. Hughes left the field on a stretcher after helping his side stay in the title race and he underwent surgery during the week.
Pooler’s bonus-point win kept alive the title race and they were 21-0 ahead at the break against the students thanks to tries from Garin Price, Darren Hughes and Ashley Sweet, all of which were converted by Matthew Jarvis. The home side threw the kitchen sink at their visitors after the break and cut the gap to 10 points at one stage.
American scrum half Ethan McVeigh got the first home try, but Mike Herbert was quick to respond with the bonus-point score for Pooler. Then wing Rhoma Zheng and Joe Locke crossed for the Archers and Bradley Roderick-Evans converted all three to bring his side back into the contest.
Jarvis resorted to kicking two penalties to keep his side ahead, but the Pontypool cause wasn’t helped when Scott Matthews picked up a yellow card five minutes from time. It didn’t cost them, however, as Ethan Davies skipped away to add a fifth try at the end.
