Lynn Howells will return to his old stamping ground at Sardis Road on tonight intent on inflicting more pain on his old club Pontypridd.
The former Wales coach, now the Director of Rugby at Doncaster Knights, will bring his English team to Wales for their re-arranged British & Irish Cup match with an unbeaten record in the tournament and aiming to kill off any lingering Ponty interest in going through to the later stages.
Former Wales scrum half Paul John, now joint Pontypridd coach, won plenty of honours with Howells at the helm and is looking forward to locking horns with his old tutor.
“Obviously Lynn, along with Brett (Davey), were down for the original fixture and it will be great to see both of them again for this re-arranged game,” said Wales sevens coach John.
“It is always good to see Lynn and it is great to see him doing so well with Doncaster, who also beat Cardiff, one of his other old clubs, earlier in the tournament.
“We played Doncaster in a pre-season match so we know they are a big and powerful unit but there will be a bit more bite to the game this time as it is in a tournament.
“These matches are great experience for our boys to gauge where they are at but, as we have already had two defeats in the competition, we need to beat Doncaster and see other results to go our way.
“That is a big ask, particularly as Doncaster are unbeaten in our group.”
It is going to be a busy week in the competition for Ponty as they have to travel to Birmingham on Saturday. Llanelli travel to London Welsh for a vital game for the semi-final chasing Exiles and Cardiff host Ayr, while Newport hope to keep their knock-out hopes alive at Cornish Pirates on Sunday.
