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04.10.2011 - Preview: Newport v Aberavon
Second placed Aberavon travel to Rodney Parade to take on ninth placed Newport this coming Saturday in the Principality Premiership, kick off 2:30pm.
Newport opened their season with three straight losses - at home to Llanelli (25 - 37), away to Bridgend (27 - 45) and away to Neath (16 - 36). Since then the Black & Ambers have had back to back home wins against Pontypool (36 - 20) and Carmarthen Quins (36 -33). After Newport snatched victory with the last kick of the match against the Quins, head coach Sven Cronk said, "We’ve got a huge contest here on Saturday because Aberavon are an in-form side and will present a sterner test than that. We need to go up a few gears, that’s for sure. We were cruising at one point but our errors hauled the Quins back into it. We spoke at half-time and said that we hadn’t really done anything and needed to kick on, but that didn’t happen and it was a frustrating afternoon."
Newport's games have been high scoring affairs with them the fourth highest points scorers (140) and joint third highest try scorers (16), but also second highest in terms of points against (171) and tries against (23). Aberavon are third highest points scorers (144), second highest try scorers (18), but third lowest in terms of points against (80), and tries against (7).
Top points scorer for the club is Lewis Robling with 57 while the top try scorer is Alan Awcock with 4 tries. For the Wizards the top points scorer is Jamie Davies with 39 points. Top try scorer for Aberavon is Richard Carter with 5 tries, followed by David Pritchard with 4.
Head-to-head, Aberavon and Newport have met each other 28 times in the Welsh National League with the Black & Ambers leading the series by by 19 wins to 9. At Rodney Parade Newport lead 11 - 3 and have won the last two games there.
Looking back five seasons ago the Wizards won their first league game at
the ground when they ran out 19 - 16 winners in the opening game of the season.
In that game a couple of magic moments from full-back Liam Gadd combined with a faultless goalkicking display from Jamie Davies helped to bring Aberavon their first win at Newport since December 1984. Davies kicked 14 points with the boot while Gadd scored a try in the final quarter of the match.
The Wizards team that day was: Liam Gadd; Richard Carter, Richard Thomas (rep Gareth Knox), Darren Ryan (rep David Hawkins), Daran Griffiths; Jamie Davies, Daniel Hawkins (rep Ricky Richards); Mike Harris (rep Neil White), Chris Wells (rep Marc Breeze), Anthony Edwards, Paul Morgan (rep Steve Phillips), Chris Gittins (capt), Ian Moore, Richard Morris, James Davies (rep Darryl Thomas).
The referee for Saturday’s game is Leighton Hodges, aided by touch judges Phil Connett and Huw F Lewis.
The other Premiership games taking place on Saturday are:
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Bedwas (12th) v Carmarthen Quins (10th) (Quins won the corresponding fixture last season 26 - 21)
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Bridgend (7th) v Cardiff (8th)
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Llandovery (3rd) v Pontypridd (4th) (Pontypridd won last season 33 - 17)
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Neath (1st) v Pontypool (13th) (Neath won last season 43 - 20)
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Swansea (11th) v Cross Keys (6th) (Swansea won last season 34 - 28)
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Tonmawr (14th) v Llanelli (5th) (Llanelli won last season 26 - 7)
Update (07.10.2011) - Team Announcement
Aberavon Starting XV: Ricky Thomas; Richard Carter, Ben John, Will Price, Chris Lewis; Howard Thomas, David
Pritchard; Neil White, Marc Breeze, Will Taylor, Ian Moore, Sam Williams, Darryl Thomas, Richard Morris, Nathan Brown..
Replacements: Dan Davies, A.N.Other, Chris Davies, Darryl Harvey, Rowan Jenkins, Rhydian Gierat, Anthony
Edwards.
Newport Starting XV: Elliot Frewen; Ifan Evans, Alan Awcock, Scott Williams,
Matthew Pewtner; Niall Martin, James Leadbeater; David Pattison, Andrew Brown (capt), Trystan Davies, Dafydd Rosser, Alex Jones, Rhys Jenkins,
Hywel Stoddart, Darren Waters.
Replacements: Sam Parry, Dan Watchurst, Sam Waldron, Craig Hill, William Rees-Hole, Owen Broad, Joshua Davies.
(Click here for earlier news)
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