PLENTY of Principality Premiership clubs are nervous about the return of relegation but Ebbw Vale captain Ronny Kynes says the Steelmen are looking up, writes Chris Kirwan.

Up to five teams could drop down to the Championship but the Eugene Cross Park club are confident of a return to the title tussle.

The 2016 champions finished sixth last season thanks to a strong end to the campaign under new head coach Greg Woods, who took the reins in January.

Kynes is confident that Ebbw, who start at Llanelli before welcoming the BBC cameras to Eugene Cross Park next Friday for their meeting with Aberavon, can pick up where they left off.

"We want to win it, we aren't just thinking about staying up," said the flanker. "We had a bad start last season but after January we won 9 of 13.

"We want to keep that going and don't want to play it safe, we want to challenge the top teams like Merthyr and Pontypridd. The top end is where we want to be."

That desire is aided by the signings of three players who were on the books of regions last season with lock Ashley Sweet and full-back/centre Carl Meyer arriving from the Dragons and fly-half Geraint Rhys Jones joining his hometown club from the Scarlets.

"We have recruited well," said Kynes. "Last season we didn't really as strong a bench as we wanted and a lot of the boys were playing 80 minutes week in, week out.

"This year we have options and we are in a good position. We've had a great pre-season with a couple of tough games and good beasting from 'Woodsy' and the other coaches.

"He steadily built things the way that he wanted them at the end of last season and got his methods across to us.

"We have taken that on board and now we are looking forward to Llanelli. It'll be a tough game but we can't wait to see where we are at."