RGC aim to avenge early loss at Drovers

RGC 1404 will be looking to avenge their opening weekend defeat at Llandovery when the sides meet again at Church Bank at midday.

Euro Evans’ side were victorious 31-10 on the same ground in late August, which was the catalyst for RGC going on a run to finish top of the Principality Premiership’s West Conference and included a 24-7 win over the Drovers in the reverse fixture at Parc Eirias in October.

Llandovery finished second in the West section, while there are just two points between the sides heading into the third clash of the season.

Both won their first game in the combined Premiership back on December 30, with RGC thumping Bridgend 47-14 while Llandovery beat Aberavon 30-7, but missed out on a bonus point.

Drovers coach Evans said: “You’ve got to win your home games, so it’s a big focus for us to get a result.

“It’s just unfortunate that we’re going to be missing a number of our better players who are with the Scarlets in the Anglo-Welsh.

“But we’ll go with what we have and we’ve also got an excellent home record.

“RGC are always well prepared and a tough nut to crack, but we beat them well at the start of the season.

“We’ll go in with confidence and hopefully we can get another win against them.”

There are two other Premiership games today, with reigning champions Merthyr heading to Bedwas (11.30am) and Swansea entertaining Bargoed (midday).

Then, tomorrow, new head coach Greg Woods will be looking to kick off his reign in charge of Ebbw Vale with victory at Rodney Parade against Newport (2.30pm).

Woods, who moved to the Steelmen last month after 15 years at Cross Keys, was due to take his new Ebbw side to Bridgend in the WRU National Cup last week, but a waterlogged pitch meant he had to wait another week for his first match.

Woods said: “I’ve been impressed with the boys’ attitude in training, but I’m looking forward to getting going on Sunday.

“We’ve got a lot of games coming thick and fast over the next couple of weeks, so I’m going to get a really good sense of where the guys are at.”

In last night’s matches, Pontypridd went over for eight tries in a 59-14 win over Llanelli at Sardis Road, while Cardiff won 23-13 at Bridgend and Carmarthen Quins triumphed 21-15 at home to Aberavon.