Raiders ring the changes
THREE Raiders will make their first start for the club at National Two South leaders Rams tomorrow.
In a bold selection from the management team after back-to-back wins, Guernsey have made seven changes to the starting XV who beat Clifton last week with several regulars, including captain Lewis Hillier and vice-captain Tom Ceillam, rested for this weekend’s trip to Reading.
Among those getting their chance to shine are debutant fly-half Henry Greenhalgh, new hooker Harry Baron and academy product Brad Webb.
New versatile back Chris Bolton, who scored a hat-trick for St Jacques Vikings a fortnight ago, will also come off the bench at some stage.
‘There is only one forced change from last week and that is Taylor Quate being unavailable after he hurt his ankle against Clifton,’ said Raiders head coach Jordan Reynolds.
‘The rest have all been selection changes based on giving some guys an opportunity and resting others as we have had six weeks at this level now and a lot of those guys have been playing “80s” each week.
‘The selections and decisions we’ve made have been really calculated.
‘There is the important aspect of looking at the longer term for us and come the end of the season we want to be looking at two objectives which are, No. 1, have we managed to stay up and, No. 2, have we built a 30-man squad.
‘What we want to do is have at least 28-30 guys who are good enough to play at this level and to do that we need to give them game time. We could not have done this a year ago, but we are really keen to give people an opportunity to show they can perform at this level and getting experience is so key to that.’
Nick Merrien will captain the side and is one of five members of the pack who have come through the local ranks.
Behind them, Nico Alexandre partners Greenhalgh at half-back with Elia Morisio moving out into the centres to partner Matt Armstrong.
The back three of Malcolm Barnes, Chris Ahne and Alex Gow all started against Clifton.
Reynolds emphasised that the step up to Level Four of the RFU league ladder necessitates the use of a bigger squad throughout the season and the management need to be canny in when to make changes.
‘We have 30 games a season now at a harder and faster pace. We only have one bye weekend in the first 16 weeks – it’s brutal,’ he said.
‘If we do not give the players some rotation and rest, we are going to kill them inside the first 10 weeks.’
