STEFAN Sankala has joked that he is the master going up against his apprentice when Bedwas face former Bridge Field chief Steve Law’s Cardiff at the Arms Park tonight (kick-off 7.15pm).

Sankala played and coached under Law during the latter’s 16-year tenure as Bedwas boss, a stint which came to an end in May 2017 when he became Cardiff’s director of rugby.

Law earned his first win in the fixture with his old club earlier this season following three Principality Premiership defeats to Bedwas in the 2017-18 term.

Victory with a bonus point this evening would move the Blue and Blacks level with leaders Merthyr, who play Neath tomorrow.

While Sankala’s men have the chance to derail Cardiff’s title push, their main objective is to stay in the Premiership – they sit three points behind Cross Keys who occupy the first safe spot.

They closed the gap last weekend thanks to a 52-7 battering of Bargoed, while Cardiff were edging out Keys in a contest moved to Ystrad Mynach because of the inclement weather.

Looking ahead to tonight’s encounter, Bedwas head coach Sankala said: “There’s going to be some added spice to it – I’m obviously the master and Spot (Law) is the apprentice!

"There’s no love lost between the two clubs and there has been a little bit of banter going around.

“A win is obviously high on their agenda because they are trying to finish in the top two.

"But points are crucial for us as well and we’ll be going down there looking to keep the momentum going after the Bargoed win.

“When it comes down to the crunch, we are desperate for the points and so are they. We know what we need to target and we’re desperate to get something out of the game.

“We lost to them at home by a couple of points, so we know we can be competitive against them, but we’re under no illusions, it’s going to be a massive challenge.”

On the Bargoed triumph, he added: “It was one of our most accurate and convincing performances of the season.

"We were more than competitive in every facet of the game and I’ve got to take my hat off to everyone in the 23, it was a great squad performance, our set-piece was superb.”