NEWPORT have boosted their squad for next season following their bitterly disappointing current campaign by signing three players from Gwent Principality Premiership rivals Ebbw Vale.

Wing Wes Cunliffe, back row forward Spencer Gibson and prop John Lavender will leave play-off contenders the Steelmen for life at Rodney Parade.

The trio are all very capable players who could certainly add much to a Black and Ambers side desperately in need of turning around their fortunes having spent much of the past few years propping up the league table.

The 27-year-old Cunliffe is a dangerous wing who, with his 6ft 1in and 15st 6lb frame, is a hard man to stop going forward and a useful defender.

Gibson, 26, is, at 5ft 11in and 15st 6lb, a former Newport Gwent Dragons Under-18s prop converted to the back row who carries extremely well.

Newport know all about 22-year-old Lavender who they signed from Bargoed ahead of the 2012/13 season.

The 6ft 18st and 12lb front row forward made four appearances for the club in 2012, all from the replacements’ bench.

On the down side for the Black and Ambers, they look set to lose one of their best current players with several Premiership sides keen to sign their winger Elliot Frewen.

The 27-year-old 5ft 9in and 12st 3lb flyer joined the club from Tonmawr in the 2011/12 season.

He has established himself as a firm favourite with the Rodney Parade faithful with his devastating finishing and the ability to create attacking opportunities from deep.

Frewen was part of the club’s winning Men of Gwent Sevens squad in 2011 and was the Premiership’s joint top try scorer (with Jason Harries from Carmarthen Quins) in the 2012/13 season with 12 tries.

To date, with Sunday’s home match against Aberavon to come, he has played 85 times for the club with an impressive strike rate of 32 tries, especially when one takes into account that Newport lost in 54 of those games.