By Sparkie
April 11 2003

Pontypridd coach Lynn Howells geed up his players by laying claiming to the role of underestimated underdog. Mohemmed Saeed Al Sahef he is not. Warren Gatland countered by insisting that London Wasps would not take our illustrious visitors for granted. To be fair, Howells went on to qualify his reasoning to Andrea Morgan of The Western Mail, "They will not class Pontypridd as a major club. A lot of the English players will underestimate us and I'm sure Rob Howley and Warren Gatland will be working hard to counter that."

Long suffering Wasps supporters who have followed our team to Wales need no reminding that successes in the Principality are few and far between. In recent years we've been blown away by Swansea and tortured to death by Llanelli to name but two of the big nine Welsh clubs. Victories against the Welsh are hard fought battles, even on our own turf. It is crucial that Wasps take the sort of advantage that we gained over Stade Français to the return leg at Sardis Road, the House of Pain.

Both Trevor Leota and Peter Scrivener can testify to our difficulties beyond Offa's Dyke, having borne the brunt of the criticism when we failed to defend a nine-point lead at Stradey Park against a snarling Scarlets team. They will be on the bench on Saturday to witness how our home instalment against Ponty turns out.

What can we expect from Ponty? The team showed it's colours last season, taking Sale all the way before losing a pulsating Parker Shield final at Oxford's Kassam Stadium. They also won the Welsh Principality Cup, beating Llanelli in last year’s final 20-17. This season they showed well in the Welsh-Scottish league and qualified for the knockout stages of the Celtic league before losing to Neath by the odd point in 25 at home in the quarter final.

The side is packed with internationals including prodigal returnee Neil Jenkins who finally started a match for them last week. Lock Robert Sidoli impressed most of all the Welsh players in this year's Six Nations but he is an injury doubt along with a number of other players. This may be a bit of kidology though -- Ponty have played few matches since the turn of the year, one of the big failings in the club structure in Wales and one of the factors which persuaded Rob Howley to venture east to Wasps. Howells is notorious for changing his team sheet immediately prior to a match, expect the same on Saturday afternoon.

Howells also mentions that Ponty winning this Cup would be a fitting tribute to the re-emergence of Ponty before it "merges" with rivals Bridgend in Wales' new superclub structure. Already assured of Heineken European Cup rugby next season, most of their players will be fighting hard to win the unenviable contract battle at the new outfit. Wasps are their next hurdle whilst Ponty are between us and a potential place in Europe too. I think the motivation to win this semi is about equal on both sides.

London Wasps: 15 Mark Van Gisbergen; 14 Josh Lewsey, 13 Fraser Waters, 12 Stuart Abbott, 11 John Rudd; 10 Alex King, 9 Rob Howley; 1 Craig Dowd, 2 Phil Greening, 3 Will Green, 4 Simon Shaw, 5 Richard Birkett, 6 Joe Worsley, 7 Mark Lock, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio (Capt.)

16 Martyn Wood, 17 Kenny Logan, 18 Ayoola Erinle, 19 Paul Volley, 20 Peter Scrivener, 21 Alistair McKenzie, 22 Trevor Leota.

Pontypridd: B Davey; G Wyatt, S Parker, S James/J Bryant, E Lewis; N Jenkins, G Baber; G Jenkins, M Davies (capt), N Hennessy/S Cronk/D Bell, B Cockbain, R Sidoli/D McIntosh, N Kelly, M Owen, W O'Connor. Replacements: G Lewis, R Parks, N Hennessy/S Cronk/D Bell, M Rees, S James/J Bryant, J Hooper, C Sweeney.

Aug 17 Coventry (H)	Won  45 -  5 
Aug 21 Narbonne (A)	lost 29 - 21 
Aug 30 Leinster (A)  	lost 31 - 18 
Sep  7 Newport (H)  	Won  21 - 16 
Sep 13 Bridgend (A)  	Won   9 - 26 
Sep 20 Borders (H)  	Won  28 - 27 
Sep 28 Glasgow (H)  	Won  34 - 28 
Oct  5 Connacht (A)  	Won   0 - 40 
Oct 12 Rugby Roma (A)  	Won  18 - 60 
Oct 19 Rugby Roma (H)  	Won  83 -  8 
Oct 26 Cardiff (H) 	Won  15 -  9 
Nov 15 Caerphilly (A)  	Won  36 - 13 
Nov 19 Llanelli (H)  	Won  30 - 24 
Nov 29 Neath (H) 	lost 12 - 13 
Dec  7 Leeds (H) 	Won  37 - 23 
Dec 14 Leeds (A) 	Drew 19 - 19 
Dec 21 Cardiff (H)  	Won  12 - 10 
Dec 29 Neath (A)  	Won  20 - 29 
Jan  4 Ebbw Vale (H)  	lost  6 - 10 
Jan 11 Connacht (A)  	Won  30 - 35 
Jan 18 Connacht (H)  	Won  12 -  9 
Jan 25 Newport (A)  	lost 32 - 20 
Feb  8 Cross Keys (A)  	Won  16 - 49 
Feb 21 Caerphilly (H)  	Won  47 -  8 
Mar 19 Llanharan (H)  . . .

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