Drovers and All Blacks look for a form boost

TWO out-of-form sides lock horns at Church Bank tonight as Llandovery host Neath in the Principality Premiership (7.10pm).

After a good start to the season, the Drovers have lost their last three games while the visiting Welsh All Blacks are still searching for their first victory of the season.

During Llandovery’s recent losing run they also surrendered their proud home record with a 32-24 defeat against RGC 1404 – their first competitive home defeat since April 2017 – and are eager to put things right.

“We’re coming off the back of three losses, which is unlike us really. We’ve been quite consistent over the last few years,” said Llandovery team manager Andrew Jones.

“We’re back at home, we lost last time at home for the first time in about 18 months so we were really disappointed with that so we want to get that mentality of having a fortress back.

“I think one thing that has been highlighted is our discipline.

“When you are playing decent sides you can’t afford to give too many penalties away, you’re not going to win games like that.

“I think we’ve been unlucky on a few occasions with a couple of decisions but overall we’ve given away far too many penalties, we’ve addressed that in training so hopefully we keep that down.

“We need to be competitive and we need to play on the edge but we’ve got to be careful that we don’t get on the wrong side of the referee really.”

Neath are the only side yet to register a win this season but Jones has been involved in tough encounters with them and expects tonight to be no different.

“They’ve had a difficult start but in a few of their games there hasn’t been much in it so we are well aware of that,” he continued.

“They are going to win sometime and we’ve just got to make sure that we turn up.

“Neath are in the position where they will do anything to get that win.

“We’ve played them in the past when they’ve been struggling and it’s always been competitive and there hasn’t been many scores. So we expect exactly the same.

“I don’t see them coming up here and throwing the towel in.”

Despite the seven-game losing streak, Neath head coach Simon King believes his side have played well this season but haven’t made the most of their chances.

“We outscored Cross Keys four tries to three up there and lost,” he said.

“We were 17-0 up [against Ebbw Vale], if we’d got one score in the second half then I guarantee we would have won the game, the margins are fine.”

The BBC cameras will add an extra incentive to the players as both sides look to turn the form book around.