RUGBY legend Graham Price says there is nothing stopping Pontypool from going all the way in this season’s WRU National Cup, 34 years after he played in the club’s one and only final triumph.

The former Wales and British & Irish Lions prop, part of Pooler’s famous front row alongside Charlie Faulkner and Bobby Windsor, would love to see the class of 2017 match the achievements of 1983.

Price, the current Pontypool president, was a key member of the side that beat Swansea in Cardiff nearly three-and-a-half decades ago, when the competition was known as the Schweppes Cup.

Since then, Pooler have only reached the final on one more occasion, losing to Llanelli in 1991.

Price, and Faulkner, will be at Pandy Park today to cheer on captain Ben Parry and his teammates in their cup quarter-final against Gwent rivals Cross Keys (kick-off 2.45pm).

Asked if Pooler could go on and lift the trophy this spring, Price said: “There’s nothing to stop them.

“We’ve shown that we are more than a match for the Premiership clubs we’ve played against so far – look at the way we beat Llanelli and Cardiff on their own grounds.

“The boys are well prepared, they’ve got good coaching and people running the club who look after them, and they’ve got all the motivation to do it.

“And not only that but they will have all of the town there with them.”

The rugby landscape these days is very different to how it was during Price’s career.

However, while he would have enjoyed the financial benefits in today’s game, Price, now 65, loved being part of a successful side in the 1970s and 80s.

“When you look back at when we played there was no money in the game, certainly not at Pontypool,” he added.

“But we had everything else that was going and there was a good feeling amongst the boys, after all it was a hobby in those days.

“It was what we used to look forward to doing when we weren’t working, and Ray Prosser (the Pontypool coach) said the club could give us all the beer we could handle, so we took advantage of that.

“In the 80s we could beat any club side in Britain. We would go and play against Leicester and Bath, who were the top two English clubs, and beat them on their own grounds.

“We could beat all the top Welsh clubs – Cardiff, Llanelli, Swansea, Newport and Bridgend – so we were a team to be reckoned with.

“But that’s what you would expect because we had half the Wales pack and there was a time when we had what was a Welsh record of five forwards picked from one club.”

Former Pontypool number-eight Eddie Butler, now a newspaper columnist and BBC commentator, missed the 1983 final through injury.

Butler is thrilled to see his old club doing so well considering where they were just a few years ago.

“We were spectacularly badly prepared for the professional world and it was always my fear that we would never survive the transition,” said the ex-Wales captain.

“We went into a deep spiral of decline but we’ve come back out of it and I’m delighted to see that.

“That we’re still here in any shape or form is a great relief, and this cup run is such a bonus.

“It makes a very important point – we haven’t gone away, we keep going and they are a great bunch of lads.

“It’s all done with a lot of spirit and the old values of that little family we always had.

“The important thing is that the club has made a statement of intent and plans for the future.

“There’s no reason now, having come this far, why we shouldn’t kick on from here.”