The Championship winners are in a rich vein of form and have won 65 of their last 66 league matches. They took some Premiership scalps in the WRU National Cup this term by beating both Cross Keys and Bridgend before narrowly losing to Merthyr in the semi-finals. Tonight they will face Llanelli looking to seal promotion to the Premiership in a crunch play-off tie.
Former Ospreys outside-half Jones, who won a cap for Wales in 2005, is confident his side will come out on top. “It won’t take long for Llanelli to realise they’re in a serious game,” he said.
“I don’t care if they’ve got regional players who have played in Europe, those Llanelli boys are going to be thinking ‘What the hell is coming our way? We haven’t faced anything like this before.
“We know it’s going to go down to the wire, but we’ve prepared for that. I’m sure we will get the win.
“We’ve taken a few Premiership scalps in the cup over the past few seasons and beating Bridgend in the quarter-final along with pushing Merthyr so close in the semi-final has given us a lot of confidence. It’s a do-or-die game for both sides and whoever comes out of the blocks fastest will win.”
Wales and Scarlets ace Tom Prydie is set to start on the wing for Llanelli with regional players Tom Price and Steff Hughes also involved. Despite a disappointing season Paul Fisher’s side have won their last six fixtures in the Premiership and are confident they can overcome Pontypool.
“If you look at our form over the past few weeks we’ve accumulated 28 from a possible 30 points so we’re happy with the way we are playing,” said Fisher.
“It is going to be a very tough game because Pontypool are used to winning and they’ve proven in the cup they can make the step up and beat Premiership sides. But we’ve got a lot of quality in our side and if we start well I’m confident we’ll be alright.
“There is a lot of pressure on us going into this game. Llanelli is one of the most famous club sides in the world and it’s vitally important that the Scarlets have three feeder sides in the Principality Premiership.
“But we need to stick to our processes and play what’s in front of us. It’s going to be a very big occasion, but we’ve got a lot of experienced quality players in our squad.
“It’s do-or-die for us.”
Pontypool: 15 Geraint Walsh 14 Lloyd Lewis 13 Clayton Gullis 12 Kieran Meek 11 Jordan Thomas 10 Matthew Lewis 9 Martin Luckwell; 1 Jamie Jeune 2 Darren Hughes 3 Ollie Drake 4 Danny Hodge 5 Curtis Gregory 6 Scott Matthews 7 Rob Nash (Capt) 8 Ben Sparks
Replacements: 16 Ben Parry 17 Corey Hewlett 18 Craig Price 19 Brendan Lampitt 20 Mike Herbert 21 Aaron Quick 22 Joel Mahoney 23 Marcus Jones.
Llanelli: 15 Kalum Evans 14 Tom Prydie 13 Steffan Hughes 12 Jonny Lewis (Capt) 11 Ryan Davies 10 Ioan Hughes 9 Gareth George; 1 Craig Thomas 2 Mark Jones 3 Ryan Thomas 4 Chris Long 5 Tom Price 6 Taylor Davies 7 Ellis Thomas 8 Sean Evans
Replacements: 16 Greg George 17 Rhys Thomas 18 Richard Bassey 19 Lee Rees 20 Ashley Sutton 21 Liam Hutchins 22 Ryan Conbeer
