COACH Scott Williams hopes that Newbridge have turned the corner as they hunt a hat-trick of wins in the WRU National Championship at Rhydyfelin, writes Chris Kirwan.

‘Bridge are in a battle to beat the drop from the second tier of club rugby, which will be revamped next season.

At least four teams are dropping down from the Principality Premiership and that means that a quartet of clubs will be relegated from the Championship.

The Pigs looked in serious danger after losing eight of their first nine fixtures but back-to-back wins against Beddau (25-20) and Newcastle Emlyn (33-32) have lifted them up to ninth.

They are still in the drop zone but centre Williams hopes that ‘Bridge can keep climbing.

“We’ve started to click and hopefully we have turned the corner,” said the 36-year-old, who made three appearances for the Dragons and played for Newport, Pontypool, Cross Keys, Bedwas and Pertemps Bees.

“We were unlucky in a lot of games and I think it was often a case of us losing because we were trying too hard.

“When you are under pressure there is a danger of wanting to score from everything rather than being patient but these wins should help us.

“I wasn’t panicking, because we have created opportunities to win apart from against Pontypool and Narberth. The main thing is that we now have some confidence thanks to two wins and another in a friendly against Monmouthshire.

“The boys have stuck together and hopefully we can grow from here, although we know that it will be tough this weekend. It’s always hard at Rhydyfelin and we haven’t done well there.”

Williams has been joined at the helm by former prop Kristian Gay, who coaches the Dragons age-grade sides.

“Kristian has got great knowledge of the game and the boys listen to him because he has been there and done it,” said Williams, who thanked Newport and Keys for their recent help with permit players.

“He has got a great way of putting things to the players and that has shown with our results.”

‘Bridge lost three times to Rhydyfelin last season, 17-0 at the Recreation Ground and 24-5 at the Welfare Ground in the league and then 13-0 away in the WRU National Cup.

At the other end of the table, Pontypool will once again attempt to beat the side closest to them when they entertain Ystrad Rhodda.

Pooler are romping to the title and a promotion play-off and last week beat then second-placed Cardiff Met 26-14 in a tough encounter.

That allowed Ystrad, who Pontypool beat 29-18 at Gelligaled Park in September, to overtake the students.

Leighton Jones' men bid for their 11th win out of 11 to stretch their eight-point lead, and also have a game in hand.

Fixtures: Bedlinog v Tata Steel, Maesteg Quins v Cardiff Met, Narberth v Beddau, Pontypool v Ystrad Rhondda, Rhydyfelin v Newbridge, Trebanos v Newcastle Emlyn