This Saturday, Aberavon (2nd – 39pts) welcome Swansea (8th – 19pts) to the Talbot Athletic Ground in the Indigo Group Premiership, kick-off at 2:30 pm.
The All-Whites have won four of their ten league games this season. They kicked off their campaign with back-to-back defeats as they went down to Llanelli (but picked up a try bonus point) and Aberavon. They then won their next two games with victories at Carmarthen Quins and a bonus point win at home over Pontypridd. A loss at Merthyr was then followed by a home win over Newport in the middle of October. They then lost three on the bounce at Ebbw Vale, home to RGC 1404 and away to Cardiff. In their last outing, at home on Boxing Day, they had a bonus point win over Llanelli.
Looking at the Premiership, in “attack”, Swansea have scored 21.2 points on average per game (ranked 9th) and 2.7 tries (ranked 9th). In “defence” they have conceded 30.9 points on average per game (ranked 9th) and 4.5 tries (ranked 10th). Aberavon have scored 30.1 points per game (ranked 2nd) and 4.3 tries (ranked 2nd), and conceded 23.2 points (ranked 7th) and 2.6 tries (ranked 5th).
Head-to-head, Aberavon and Swansea have met each other 38 times in the Welsh National League, with the Wizards narrowly leading the series 19 – 18 with 1 game drawn. At the Talbot Athletic Ground, the Wizards lead 14 – 5 with them winning the last three times the sides have met at the ground.
Looking at the fixture back in 2006-07, the Wizards won 33 – 12. The evening game saw the home side take a 13 – 5 lead at halftime as Jamie Davies scored a try, conversion and two penalties to a try by Ben Lewis. The Whites reduced the Wizards lead early in the second half thanks to a try by David Watts, converted by Nicky Thomas. However, a third successive penalty by Davies was followed by three Aberavon tries in the last quarter as Richard Carter, Simon Peters and Darren Ryan all touched down. Davies added a conversion for a personal match tally of 18 points.
The Wizards team that day was: Liam Gadd; Richard Carter, Paul Bamsey (rep Gareth Knox), Darren Ryan, Daran Griffiths (rep Richard Thomas); Jamie Davies, Dan Hawkins; Mike Harris (rep Neil White), Chris Wells, Anthony Edwards (rep James Jones), Andrew Fisher, Chris Gittins (capt) (rep Ian Moore), Darryl Thomas, Robbie Morgan, Simon Peters.
The referee for Saturday’s game is Tom Spurrier, aided by Elgan Williams and Carwyn Williams.