NEWPORT outside half Shane Howarth is fit after suffering shoulder trouble and plays in Sunday's Principality Cup final against Neath at the Millennium Stadium.

Howarth's return is a huge boost to Newport who appear in the final for the first time for 15 years, having won the cup just once, back in 1977.

"Shane has had continuous treatment and he's been hitting bags and tackling. He's 100%," said Newport director of rugby Allan Lewis.

"It was decided he was going to play before the Cross Keys game, but we kept it a low profile. Shane tried to coax us to be a substitute at Cross Keys, but we said we wanted to keep him for the final."

Howarth will be partnered at half back by Dale Burn, who has edged out Darren Edwards.

"There is not a great deal to choose between the two scrum halves, but Dale is probably on top of his form," said Lewis.

The other fiercely fought contest, for the left wing position, has been won by Emyr Lewis, after it had been occupied by Ben Breeze and Matthew Watkins in recent weeks.

With Jason Jones-Hughes ruled out by a knee ligament injury, Watkins is at outside centre - he may have been there anyway - but Lewis is the real surprise.

If anyone had told him a week ago he would have been in the cup final he probably wouldn't have believed it.

But he returned from leading the Wales sevens team in Japan to score a hat-trick of tries at Cross Keys.

Normally a full back, he makes only his second start of the season on the wing, though he has played there as a replacement.

"We have had very positive reports about him, coupled with the fact that he brought a bit of verve on Saturday and took the ball at pace," said Lewis senior.

"Ben has been unlucky. It's not easy, but you have to go with your intuitive feelings. Emyr also gives us cover at full back."

The only other area of real debate came on the bench where Joe Powell pushed Alix Popham hard, but Popham can play anywhere in the back row.

Neath will give a fitness test to Patrick Horgan, who has switched from scrum half to outside half, on Saturday morning after a knee injury.

Newport have an extra 2,000 tickets for sale for the final on top of their original 8,000. The WRU expect a 40,000+ crowd.

Newport: M Pini, M Mostyn, M Watkins, A Marinos, E Lewis, S Howarth, D Burn, R Snow, J Richards, A Garvey, S Raiwalui, I Gough, P Buxton, G Teichmann (captain), J Forster. Replacements: J Pritchard, S Mitchell, D Edwards, C Jones, P Young, G Taylor, A Popham.

Neath: G Morris, K James, S Storey, D Tiueti, S Williams, P Horgan or T Davies or D Pugh, M Davies, D Jones, M Davies, R Millward, G Llewellyn (captain), S Martin, R Francis, R Phillips, B Sinkinson. Kick off 3pm.