THE NEWS has been dominated by Keys this week and the Pandy Park outfit want to be making the headlines in the Swalec Cup tomorrow afternoon.

While Richard has made a swift exit from Sky Sports after some ill-advised words, Cross Keys have been preparing for their clash with Swansea.

The Whites are flying high in the Premiership but will be looking for revenge after their title aspirations took a hit at Pandy Park three weeks ago.

Keys won 20-16 but they will face a very different side this time round due to international under-20s duty and Ospreys call-ups.

Coach Mark Ring, however, doesn’t believe that the absence of the likes of Matthew Morgan and Tom Prydie makes it an easier tie for the Keys.

“I think it could galvanise them,” he said. “And the side that we will be up against won’t be far off the one that finished as Premiership runners-up last season.

“We need to be well-prepared and we also need to play much better than we did three weeks ago.

“I was looking at the DVD as part of our analysis and that reinforced my view that they were very, very unlucky to lose it.

“They did lots of things that I was very impressed with but they didn’t quite come off because of our scrambling defence.

“It was a result that got us all jumping up and down in delight but it could quite easily have got away from us.”

Keys head into tomorrow’s game on the back of three straight Premiership wins, a run of form that has put them right in the mix for the end-of-season play-offs for the final British and Irish Cup place.

Away trips to Tonmawr and Glamorgan Wanderers are on the horizon and keeping momentum is key.

“We are steadily improving and we are hoping to continue our winning run,” said Ring.

“To do that we will have to have much more possession than we did last time, because we relied on our defence. If we gain parity in terms of possession then we can be dangerous.

“The pleasing thing is that we have worked hard on our structures and that we have got the ability to hang on in there in tough games.

“But we got out of a hole last time against Swansea and that doesn’t happen too often.”

Keys select Ryan Lee at full-back while Owen Jones and Steffan Jones are paired at half-back.

Julian Price, Richard Emms and Marc Jones get the nod in the front row while Rob Nash returns as skipper in the back row.

Cross Keys: R Lee, J Davies, N Williams, L Andrews, M Johnstone, S Jones, O Jones, J Price, R Emms, M Jones, M Curtis, D Hodge, M Popham, R Nash (captain), T Lampard. Replacements: from rest of squad.