Match Preview

The Met Police make the relatively long trip to the Welsh Valleys on Wednesday for another pool game in this season's PSUK Cup. It sees MPRFC taking on old adversaries and current cup holders South Wales Police a quarter of a mile from the A470, under the shadow of a recently upgraded, vandal-proof stand at Abercynon RFC

The fixture goes back over 50 years, since the South Wales Police RFC was founded in 1969. Back in the amateur era pre-1996 the Met and South Wales Police were considered to be part of the elite, regularly featuring on Final Score on BBC's Grandstand and what was, in those days, Radio Two's Sports Report. In those days, SWP played in Bridgend, some 26 miles by road from the venue on the Afon Cynon.

South Wales Police have provided over a dozen Wales Internationals. The most recent was Bleddyn Bowen, who captained both the Police and the National side while winning 24 caps between 1983-89. Richie Collins, another South Wales officer also represented Wales when Bowen was skipper, winning the first of his 28 caps in 1987, although he established his International credentials while playing for Newport, Cardiff and Bristol before returning to coach at Pontypridd.

Of course the Met was not without its international recognition, Paul Ackford and Martin Bayfield both having played with Bowen & Collins for British Police, and against them on the slightly more grand Five Nations stage as it was pre-Italy's inclusion in 2000.

Pre-1996 the Met were considered "too good" to enter the British Police Cup, although that enabled their equally skilful South Wales colleagues to make hay, winning the competition on a regular basis. Although it took several years longer for South Wales Police to suffer the vagaries of Professional, league based rugby, they did withdraw from the Welsh league system in 2012. They are now officially a feeder team for the Ospreys and do hope to rejoin the league structure at some stage.

This match promises to be a close-fought affair with a strong Met squad riding on the back of a successful outing against Paris Police a fortnight ago.