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| Round 5 Conference Preview | ||
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On Saturday the Bridgend Blue Bulls take on the Swansea Valley Miners at Porthcawl RFC and say goodbye to their stalwart Craig Fox. Hooker Fox has been with the Blue Bulls since their inception in 2003 helping the side to three Welsh and two British titles and scoring over 30 tries, but on Thursday he will be jetting off to play Rugby Union in Florida along with fellow Blue Bull Paul Smithson. For the tie the Bulls welcome back Jon Purnell, Matthew Hutchings, Aaron Warner and Tevita Manaseitava but will be without injured trio Nathan Strong, Michael John and Craig Voisey. Despite a big win over the Miners earlier in the season Bridgend will be taking nothing for granted, since that win Swansea have improved a lot and have brought in many good players, and they will be boosted by their recent win over Aberavon Fighting Irish. Prior to the match Swansea Chairman Neville Price said "The Miners are looking forward to top of the table clash v Bridgend, our team is improving from week to week and the game this coming Saturday will not be an easy one for the Blue Bulls. The Miners intend to play a good standard of Rugby League at a high tempo and no quarter will be given as we intend to impose ourselves on the game. We feel that we have the fire power to worry the champs". |
Blackwood Bulldogs will hope to build on their fine win against Valley Cougars on Wednesday night by giving a good game to unbeaten Conference East league leaders Cardiff Demons at Glan-yr-Afon Park on Saturday (kick-off 2.30pm). The Bulldogs played attractive rugby to build up a big lead on Wednesday and although they hung on to win, they let their 32-point lead be reduced to 10 points by the end of the match. Bulldogs vice-chairman Andrew Smith believes that his team can only learn from this and they are ready to face the Demons on Saturday. Smith said: “This will pull us together even more – our heads dropped in the second half and we let them back into in but we can only learn from this. I’m pleased that we held on for our first win and I’m pleased with the way things are going – there’s a real competition for places in the side as we have plenty of players in Blackwood all wanting to give rugby league a try. It’ll be tough game against Cardiff as they’ve had an excellent start to the season. We’ll give them as good as they get and I’m sure it’ll be another close match.” Less than nine miles away, at the same time, old rivals Torfaen Tigers and Newport Titans go head to head at Pontypool United RFC. Both teams have lost just once this season – both away at Cardiff Demons, and a win for either one of the sides will give them a massive boost in both morale and the league table. Unless the Demons suffer a poor run of form, one of these two teams will miss out on the play-offs and Torfaen chairman Bob Bendon is convinced that it won’t be his side and that they have the capabilities to beat Newport to help their cause. Bendon said: “I think we cut our own throats down at Cardiff last week and we had the beating of them. It was only our penalty count that lost us the game and we can learn from that. I think we can match Newport if not beat them. We have a couple of injury worries - Chris Williams has a neck injury and Jason Hill is struggling with his ankle but we’re up for the challenge – we always are against Newport.” article by Simon Green and Ian Golden
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