BEDWAS will have pillows and blankets at the ready tomorrow morning as they make a 5am start for their clash with RGC 1404 in Colwyn Bay.

The Principality Premiership encounter is kicking off at 11am to give supporters the chance to watch the Wales-Tonga Test on television some three-and-a-half hours later.

This isn’t anything new for the Bridge Field club, who also had to set off early for an RGC fixture in March 2017.

Back then, Steve Law, the Bedwas head coach at the time, was furious with the Welsh Rugby Union’s decision to make the teams kick-off at 1pm.

Despite their early start, the Gwent outfit beat RGC 21-15, an outcome current Bedwas chief Stefan Sankala wouldn’t mind a repeat of this time around.

“It’s quite a challenge for us before we even get on the field,” he said.

“It would have been impossible for our lads to get up there on a Friday, so we’ve had to bite the bullet and make an early start on Saturday.

“The boys are switched on to the situation and they know there’s no point beating yourself up before you get on the pitch.

“It’s not ideal and something that whoever organises the fixtures needs to look at, but we’re just going to suck it up.”

All of Bedwas’ wins this season have come on their travels, and Sankala is hoping for another one tomorrow after a poor display a week ago.

“It’s quite a daunting challenge,” he added. “But we have been far more successful on the road this season.

“We were bitterly disappointed with how we played against Aberavon last Friday (Bedwas lost 19-5 at Bridge Field), so we want to bounce back from that at RGC.

“We saved our worst performance of the season for Aberavon, but they were far better than us.”

Some of the squad will make the four-hour journey to Colwyn Bay tonight, while the rest of the travelling party head up to Stadiwm Zip World in the morning.

Nathan Hudd is set to return from injury to boost the Bedwas ranks.