On Friday the season starts for the Black & Ambers with a stern test from our friends from the West. Llandovery are the current SRC Cup holders and they will come to play.
It seems that they have had only one pre-season game, against the Scarlets when they went down 7 – 26, but we shouldn’t read too much into that.
Newport will be without their two stalwart players, Rhys Jenkins and Elliot Frewen, and it will be interesting to see how their replacements fit into the squad and the matchday team. We’ve had mixed results from our three pre-season games with a comfortable win away to Pontypridd but a wake-up call against Rosslyn Park who looked very slick in their win. In our final pre-season game things seemed to click into place and we came away with a win and several new players started to look the part.
The Newport matchday squad will be selected and posted after tonight’s training session.
Newport: Tom Devine, Henry Palmer, Ollie Drake, Josh Skinner, Calum Bradbury, Ioan Rhys Davie, Josh Reid, Ben Roach Capt., Dafydd Buckland, Carwyn Penny, Finn Baker, Chay Foster-Smith, Jon Morris, Lloyd lewis, Morgan Williams
Replacements: Tom Workman, Wade Langley, Garin Harris, Cerrig Smith, Kobi Rees, Lucus Welch, Matt O’Brien, Barney Nightingale
Referee: Adam Jones
AR1: Marcus Caudle
AR2: Paddy Bateman
AR3: Neil Perkins
Venue: Newport Stadium, Newport Sports Village, NP19 4PT
PLEASE NOTE: The cricket club will not be available to supporters as there is a private party there on Friday evening