By Tobias Hunt
AMBITIOUS Pontypool RFC boss Ben Jeffreys has spoken of his pride at renovations of the club’s famous home – and his hopes for the coming campaign.
Pooler, who for manifold reasons have been denied promotion to the Welsh Premiership in recent years, began in rip-roaring fashion with a 42-3 win against Maesteg Harlequins in the opening league game on Saturday.
Club chief executive Ben Jeffreys, who has been an outspoken critic of the delay in the return to competitive action because of the pandemic, said: “We’re hugely excited to welcome fans back to the park, to have rugby back and the chance to be reunited with our supporters is great.
“It’s not been without its challenges, with the Welsh Rugby Union completely losing control with the return to rugby process in my opinion.
“We’ve been up against it trying to get everything set, but I think we’ve done well and we’re ready to play Championship rugby again.”
Jeffreys outlined the work that’s been done at Pontypool Park, including the renaming of a stand in honour of a club legend.
He added: “We’ve managed to do everything we were planning on doing over the next three years, the whole inside interior has been renovated.
“However, most importantly we’ve named the stand the Ray Prosser Stand after sadly losing one of the most iconic figures of the club’s history during the pandemic.
“It seemed only fitting in this new era to name it after Ray and we couldn’t wait for the fans to come and see all the work we’ve done.”
Pride.#WeGoAgain pic.twitter.com/9qUGL7hQe0
— Pontypool RFC (@PontypoolRFC) November 14, 2021
On the return to league action, Jeffreys said: “We had prepared for a return in early 2022 however the WRU changed the return date, so we had to come back very suddenly which has disrupted our training and led to a significant number of injuries in our squad.
“Ultimately, the club has done everything it can do on and off the pitch to get back to business as we’re used to. In terms of performances, we are realistic it’s going to be difficult; our aim is to make the play-offs.
“We’ve got an excellent squad, on paper I think it’s the best squad we’ve had since I joined in 2012. The team spirit seems strong, and I’m excited to see these group of guys play together all season.”
There is no promotion from the Championship to the Premiership this year due to there not being a full set of fixtures.
It’s something that has irked Jeffreys considerably.
He said: “The WRU were strongly intimating to us that there was going to be promotion and were strongly suggesting that more than one team were going to be promoted.
“Obviously, none of that happened and we were only notified that four hours before they made the announcement in the summer.
“We’re incredibly frustrated by the decision however, we can’t control this, but I think we’ve had a lot of experience being frustrated by the WRU.
“Now we’re just concentrating on winning, we’ve got a great squad and great staff and I can’t wait to get going again.”