Jason Strange saw his Ebbw Vale side continue their warm-up for the new Super Rygbi Cymru season with a five try, 40-31 victory over English National League 1 side Dings Crusaders at the weekend.
It followed on from their 33-14 win at Cross Keys the previous week and they will complete their build up to their opening SRC fixture against Swansea at Eugene Cross Park on 12 September when they head to Brynmawr on Thursday night (27 August).
Having finished as runners-up in the SRC Trophy finals of the past two seasons, and runners-up in the SRC Cup two seasons ago, the sights are set on winning silverware this season.
“We’ve been in three of the four finals in SRC since it started, which isn’t too bad, without actually winning anything. So, we just start again,” said Strange.
“Nothing gets given to you in this league – you have to take care of yourselves and your own business. We’ll be backing ourselves to be right up there again this season.
“Everything really started in the huddle after we lost to Llandovery in last season’s final. As disappointing as that was for everyone, we said it should be the catalyst for our 2026-27 campaign.
“There are going to be a lot of good teams in the SRC this season and anyone in the top eight can beat anyone else. It will be very competitive, especially away from home.
“We’ve lost a few players, but the youngsters coming through will be more experienced and it is down to us as coaches to ensure they become better players. There are some good leaders in our squad who are tough, will want us to be competitive and will demand we go after it again.”
Hooker and skipper Joe Franchi is taking over as the club’s S&C coach after picking up a neck injury that has forced him to retire as a player. Outside half Evan Lloyd has transferred to Pontypool.
But Strange remains excited by the younger talent coming through – Harry Kinsey has joined from Llandovery College and the Dragons U18 teams as a potential No 10 replacement – and teams will still have to find a way to cope with the power of the front five.
The Steelmen’s opening opponents in SRC, Swansea, were unable to follow up their friendly triumph over Plymouth Albion, 36-33, with another win as they conceded nine tires in a 61-29 defeat at English Championship side Richmond.
Brandon Wood, Iwan Glynn, head coach Joe Thomas, Kai Inker and Sam Cawsey scored the Swansea tries. Luke Price added two conversions.
Reigning champions Llandovery had two tries from former Wales U20 wing Llien Morgan in the 47-7 home win over Narberth. The other scores came from Kian Abraham, Kai Jones, Gryff Watkins, Dino Dalavalle and Sam Potter.
Potter also added six conversions as the Drovers made it two out of two in their pre-season after beating Llandybie 87-0. They will complete their programme with a final game against Premiership champions Merthyr at The Wern.
Bridgend ran in five tries at The Gnoll to beat Neath 33-7 – Gabe Lacey, McKenzie Scales, Nathan Evans, Corey Lewis and Ryan Wilkins getting the tries – while Carmarthen Quins were 21-7 winners at home against Birmingham Moseley.
The Quins fielded a largely teenage back division which included Tomos Lewis (19), Jayden Brown (18), Ashton Owen (18), Alfie Luger (18) and Madoc Evans (17). The home side scored three tries and only conceded one.
Newport made their first visit to Mount Pleasant Park to face Beddau and came up with a 43-14 victory. It was a performance that left head coach Ty Morris very happy with the way his side, holders of the SRC Cup and SRC Challenger Shield, are developing ahead of the season.
“We beat Bedwas and Guernsey and picked up a few knocks, buit we have given a lot of game time to a number of new players,” said Morris.
“We expected a few errors at Bedwas, and we had them, but we’ve cleaned them up since then and after winning in Guernsey we put in a very strong performance at Beddau. I’m very pleased with the way pre-season has gone and now we just need to ramp things up before our opening SRC game against RGC.”
Hunter Ward, Steff Davies, Ethan Phillips, Wade Langely, Sam Morgan, Theo McKerrow all touched down for tries and there was also a penalty try in Newport’s tally.
Aberavon were 52-29 winners at the Talbot Athletic Ground over Reading RAMS, while Pontypool ran in 11 tries in their 77-14 home win over Cinderford. Wing Ewan Rosser scored four times, Joel Patterson twice and there were other tries from Rhys Cole, Morgan Allen, Joe Davies, Marcus Jones and Ben Williams (hooker).
Kieran Meek hit the mark with 10 conversions, while Evan Lloyd chipped in with one.