MASTER and apprentice will go head-to-head at Eirias Park for a second time this season tomorrow, as Nigel Davies’ Ebbw Vale charges lock horns with Mark Jones’ RGC 1404 (kick-off 3pm).

Davies was Scarlets head coach when a knee injury forced Jones to retire from playing in August 2010 aged just 30.

But Davies handed Jones, a member of Wales’ 2008 Grand Slam squad, a way back into the game by making him the region’s skills coach.

Jones then became attack coach and was drafted into the national set-up for the 2012 autumn internationals, 2013 Six Nations and tour of Japan that summer.

A spell at Rotherham lasted less than a season before Jones took over as RGC head coach in August 2016.

Davies is looking forward to going up against his protégé again – RGC thrashed the Steelmen 51-17 in December – and he feels a lot can be learnt from how the North Wales club operates.

“I know Mark very well,” he said. “I coached him for years and then made him my backs coach at the Scarlets when he had to finish playing.

“He’s still fairly new to the role but the job he has got at RGC is excellent for him.

“He was a very thoughtful young man when he played and coaching is something I always felt he was capable of doing.”

He added: “Mark has got a very good side, and it definitely helps that they’ve got a more semi-professional environment.

“They train more than the rest of us and having full-time coaches is a big factor.

“It’s great for them and I think that’s the way to go if the Premiership wants to improve the standard of rugby.”

A win for Ebbw tomorrow would be a big boost to their hopes of claiming one of the four play-off place in tier one of the Principality Premiership.

They are fourth at the moment, four points behind leaders Merthyr with three games of the regular season left.

WRU National Cup finalists RGC sit fifth, six points adrift of the Steelmen, who will be without injured duo Josh Lewis and Cameron Regan.

Jonathan Davies is also suspended.