RYNARD Landman returns in black and amber when Newport enjoy their first Saturday afternoon of the season at Rodney Parade, writes Chris Kirwan.

The South African lock made a big impact in a trio of appearances at the start of the Principality Premiership campaign and is available for tomorrow’s meeting with Bridgend.

His Newport displays earned a regional recall for the games against Zebre and Glasgow but he was sidelined by an elbow injury.

The 32-year-old is fit again but has not been selected for the Dragons’ European Challenge Cup encounter with Northampton, so is instead poised to press him claims for a regional return in club rugby.

Newport head into the Ravens fixture - their first Saturday home date of the campaign because of County and the Dragons - on the back of an excellent 15-8 triumph at RGC 1404.

With a record of four wins from seven games, their season is at an important stage.

Beat Bridgend and Neath and they will go into a week off as challengers at the top end, fail and they will be looking over their shoulders at the relegation scrap.

“It was very, very pleasing at RGC last week, we knew that it would be a big challenge and the boys responded very well,” said head coach Craig Warlow.

“The key thing for us, and I say this every week, is that we need to go into games with the right mentality and now we have got two huge games in terms of what direction we go in.

“We really need to perform well, if the teams we are playing perform better then I can deal with that.”

Former Bridgend fly-half Warlow will lock horns with ex-Newport full-back Matt Silva, head honcho at the Brewery Field.

The Ravens are fresh from a fine win against Llandovery and were only denied at the death by Ebbw Vale a month ago.

"Bridgend are a very good side," said Warlow. "They are very aggressive, they are committed when they carry, accurate when they wipe out, run in numbers and spoil at the breakdown.

"They are a side that we need to play well against to beat."

Captain Rhys Jenkins is on the bench after missing the trip to Colwyn Bay.

The flanker had a number of bumps, the price of "putting his body on the line every week" according to his boss Warlow.