This Saturday, Aberavon (4th – 55pts) welcome RGC 1404 (6th – 46pts) to the Talbot Athletic Ground in the Indigo Group Premiership, kick-off at 2:30 pm.
RGC 1404 have won half of their eighteen league games this season. They have recorded bonus point wins against Llanelli (away), Swansea, Aberavon, Carmarthen Quins, Newport and Pontypridd, with their other victories coming against Bridgend, Ebbw Vale, and Llanelli (home). They’ve also picked up losing bonus points against Merthyr (twice), Cardiff and Llandovery.
Last weekend, in the Welsh Cup, RGC 1404 lost 15 – 52 against Cardiff in the semi-final. They reached the semi-final having topped their pool with wins over Ebbw Vale and Carmarthen Quins.
Looking at the Premiership, in “attack”, RGC 1404 have scored 26.2 points on average per game (ranked 5th) and 3.3 tries (ranked 5th). In “defence” they have conceded 20.6 points on average per game (ranked 5th) and 2.6 tries (ranked 6th). Aberavon have scored 27.8 points per game (ranked 4th) and 3.9 tries (ranked 3rd), and conceded 22.8 points (ranked 7th) and 2.8 tries (ranked 7th).
Head-to-head, Aberavon and RGC 1404 have met each other 10 times in the Welsh National League, with the series tied with 5 wins each. At the Talbot Athletic Ground, the series is tied at 2 – 2 with the Wizards winning the last time the sides met at the ground in the league (15 – 7 in 2018-19).
Looking back to the 2016-17 season when they met at Talbot Athletic Ground, the Wizards had players missing due to injuries and calls from Ospreys and Wales Sevens. However, they turned in one of their better performances of the season. It was nip and tuck in the first half with three Steffen Williams penalties edging out a try by RGC captain Meredydd Francis that Jacob Botica converted. In the second half, a try by Matthew Jenkins, converted by Williams, was followed by a try by RGC forward Huw Worthington. Botica’s conversion made the score 16 – 14 to Aberavon with a quarter of the game to go. However, a try by replacement lock Ben Davies and then Williams converting his own try made the final score 28 – 14 to Aberavon.
The Wizards team that day was: Joe Gage; Matthew Jenkins (rep Matthew Jacobs), Rheon James, Will Price, Joe Thomas; Steffen Williams, Jacob Flynn (rep Dan Davies); Mike Burgess (rep Rhys Forse), Luke Davies (rep Gareth Harvey), Alex Jeffries (rep Jon Thomas), Ben Jones (rep Ben Davies), Sam Williams, Lee Purnell (rep Luke Joseph), Chris Davies (capt), Joe Tomalin-Reeves.
The referee for Saturday’s game is Jason Bessant, aided by Richard Brace and Stuart Kibble.