Cardiff Raptors 1 start their Western Regional League campaign against Newport Centurions 1 with last season’s gap between the sides still fresh, and an early chance to set the tone for what follows. Sunday’s meeting at the Sport Wales National Centre Jubilee Hall brings together last year’s runners-up and a side that spent most of the season near the bottom end of the nine-team division.

The Story So Far

Cardiff Raptors 1 closed the 2025-26 Western Regional League in 2nd place out of 9, putting them among the division’s front-runners across the season. Newport Centurions 1 finished 8th of 9, and will be looking for a different platform this time around from the opening whistle.

The pair met twice last season and the outcomes were emphatic: Cardiff won 27-5 away on 9 January 2026, then followed it with a 38-4 home win on 7 February 2026. Those scorelines set a clear benchmark for Newport to narrow, and a standard for Cardiff to maintain as the new season’s first result comes into focus.

What's At Stake

• A Cardiff win would immediately reinforce the level that carried them to 2nd last season, and would keep early momentum aligned with the standards they set in both meetings with Newport in 2025-26.
• A Newport win would be a major early-season reversal of last year’s head-to-head pattern, giving them a tangible sign of progress after an 8th-place finish.
• For either side, starting with a win in a nine-team division is a straightforward way to put points on the board at the first attempt and shape the outlook for the season ahead.