PONTYPOOL boss Leighton Jones will be an interested observer at Sardis Road on Saturday when the Championship champions find out their play-off opponents, writes Chris Kirwan.

The make-up of next season's revamped Principality Premiership is still to be decided with three clubs in the relegation mix and Pooler hoping to move on up.

The Championship winners play a play-off on neutral territory on the weekend of May 17 and their opponents will be decided on Saturday.

The Premiership relegation dogfight is going to the wire with Llanelli, Bedwas and Bridgend aiming to avoid the same fate as Neath, Cross Keys and Bargoed.

Bedwas and Llanelli have completed their fixtures and as things stand it is the men from Bridge Field (62 points) that would face Pooler with the west Walians (63 points) staying up.

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However, Bridgend (61 points) have a final fixture to play at Pontypridd on Saturday.

  • If the Ravens win at Sardis Road then Bedwas will be down and Llanelli will be in the play-off.
  • If the Ravens leave with a solitary bonus point then the table will stay as it is.
  • If the Ravens get a pair of bonus points or draw then Bedwas will be down and Pooler will face Bridgend (Llanelli have more wins).

Jones' side have long known that they would face an 80-minute tussle for a place in the Premiership but they are still unable to prepare for who it will be.

"I think that a few of us will go down to watch it on Saturday - it's a tough place to go for Bridgend," said the head coach, whose side enjoyed a second successive perfect season of 22 wins from 22 games.

"It's still one of three teams so we will concentrate on ourselves this week. We have been off the mark in recent games so will work to correct things in attack and defence.

"We haven't been where we were but we have had injuries to some key players and have been able to rest them for the play-off."