Guernsey Press

Four colts among the five Raiders debutants

FOUR Guernsey Colts are in line to make their Siam Cup debuts on Saturday.

Published
Siam siblings: Brother and sister Nick and Rachel Merrien, along with their respective Raiders and Guernsey Ladies teammates, were presented with their shirts by the Lt-Governor Vice Admiral Sir Ian Corder last night ahead of the Siam Cup matches at Footes Lane on Saturday. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 21357915)

Along with one of the stars of the season, New Zealander Doug Horrocks, the young quartet of Matt Creber, Ben Holland, Tom Teasdale and Callum Gladstone are among the five players set to win their first caps in the annual clash with Jersey, the 2018 edition of which takes place at Footes Lane.

Raiders coach Jordan Reynolds has been unable to name his starting XV as he waits on the fitness of Owen Thomas, among others, but he is definitely without Malcolm Barnes, who will have his elbow screwed today having broken it once again in the National Two promotion play-off win over Bournemouth.

With Kyle Brown now having left the island, Holland looks set to start at scrum-half.

Also missing through injury are Charlie Currie and Blair Campbell.

Guernsey have not trained yet this week following the exertions of the play-off victory, but Reynolds believes adrenalin will get them through.

‘I don’t feel I have to motivate the players at all. It’s a Siam and they all enjoy it,’ he said.

‘We are naming a lot of young guys from our colts in the squad, too, which is brilliant. We want to use the opportunity to blood a few new guys in the Siam and see how they take on the big occasion.

‘The motivation will be there for the players, it’s just a question of whether the bodies will be. Fair play, I’ve spoken to a lot of the guys over Monday and Tuesday about how their bodies are and they’ve said “I can’t train and I can’t move at the moment, but I’ll be ready for Saturday”, so the boys want to play it, which is fantastic.’

Meanwhile, Guernsey women’s coach Chris Griffiths has been able to name arguably his strongest squad of the season as his side aim to make it seven wins in a row in their Siam match.

Guernsey teams

Men’s squad (2.45pm kick off): Steventon, Ceillam, L. Batiste, Craine, Skovronek, Hillier (captain), Merrien, Creber, Martin, Hill, Horrocks, Le Cocq, Rice, Holland, Thomas, Teasdale, N. Brown, J. Batiste, Jones, Gladstone, Sayer, Whitehead, Armstrong.

Women’s team (10.45am kick off): Le Maitre, Schofield, Mahy, Whittles, Vavere, Scholtz, Power, Merrien, Crouse, Baker, Duchemin, Guilbert, Ashworth, Pratt, Rang. Replacements: Smith, O’Connell, Harris, Hollingworth, Ferbrache, Gaudion, Williams.