It is so easy to get a bit carried away when previewing a Newport-Cardiff game. “The greatest club rivalry in world rugby”, “Our oldest enemies – our oldest friends”, and many more cliches come to mind, but there is definitely something special about matches between these famous old clubs. No Newport supporter will forget season 2021-22 when, helped by some unusual fixture scheduling, we played the old enemy four times in a season and won them all. The last of those victories was at Pontypridd in the semi-final of the cup and I remember saying to Brian BJ Jones that we were now in the cup final. “Forget the cup final”, he said “we can win that any season, but beating Cardiff four times is historic”. He was right. The next season and we’re trailing by two points well into injury time at Cardiff Arms Park, but Matt O’Brien tried an outrageous drop goal from a distance, and over it went to the cheers of the Newport supporters. In the same season, in the cup final, after leading for most of the game and looking comfortable, Black & Amber hearts were broken when Cardiff’s Joe Goodchild scored a wonder try, diving over defenders to touch down and win the game. Some memorable moments in recent history.
Back to Sunday’s game when both sides will be trying to achieve a place in the SRC League Play-off Final. The winners will play either Llandovery or Ebbw Vale.
Newport: Tom Devine, Tyler Olding, Ollie Drake, Josh Skinner, Max Williams, George Young, Kyle Tayler, Ben Roach Captain, Dafydd Buckland, Jac Lloyd, Iestyn Galton, Chay Foster-Smith, Jon Morris, Lloyd Lewis, Carwyn Penny.
Replacements: Wade Langley, Tom Workman, Nathan Evans, Rhys Jenkins, Josh Reid, Luke Crane, David Richards, Elliot Frewen,
Referee: Ben Connor
AR1: Keith David
AR2: Max Clements
AR3: Mark Jones
Kick-off: 2:30 PM Sunday 11th May
Venue: Cardiff Arms Park