It’s one step at a time insists coach
RAIDERS cannot afford to get ahead of themselves as they look to pull off the great escape.
That was the message from coach Jordan Reynolds yesterday as his Guernsey side prepare to face Dings Crusaders tomorrow, aiming to make it three wins in a row for the first time in National Two South and increase their hopes of avoiding relegation – something that seemed like Mission Impossible at the start of the month.
However, back-to-back victories over Old Redcliffians and London Irish Wild Geese have given cause for renewed optimism, albeit with Guernsey still needing to win a minimum of three more games while also requiring other results to go their way.
Reynolds revealed that he has not reached for his calculator just yet to work out all the various scenarios, but should his side win against 11th-placed Crusaders at Footes Lane this weekend, that would change.
‘If we can win this week, then the hard maths can come out for sure, but there is no point in looking at the Henley, Taunton and Old Albanians games yet. We really have to focus on Dings,’ he said.
One thing’s for sure, Raiders will need better luck than when they lost at Dings 38-12 back in December, as Reynolds recalled.
‘About 10 minutes in we lost Elia [Morisio] to ligament damage in his ankle, then about 15 minutes after that Alex Gow broke his leg, so we had already used our two backs reserves, and then our fly-half on that day, Henry Greenhalgh, ruptured his knee,’ he said.
‘It really was a case of “what the hell to do?”. Poor Matt Creber ended up on a wing and Malcolm Barnes moved into 10.
‘In the second half Dings ran away with it, as any good team should if their opposition have to make three key changes by half-time.’
Guernsey continue to field a patched-up backline and Cam Le Prevost is set to make his home debut tomorrow after making the step up from St Jacques Vikings in last week’s remarkable 47-38 win at Wild Geese.
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‘Defensively we were not fantastic, but they were good value for the tries they scored to be fair,’ Reynolds said.
‘It helped that our pack were going forward, though, and our backline was not bad considering we had to put a second row on one wing and Cam was making his debut on the other.
‘We had to make a lot of changes so were going to be issues around combinations, but the lads stuck at it.
‘Importantly, the pack are hitting their straps and if we can get on top of things in the forwards against Dings, that will be a huge bonus.’
Dings ended a four-match losing run with a 22-17 win over their local rivals Old Redcliffians last week and Reynolds expects them to pose a major threat on what is forecast to be a fine day for running rugby.
‘I have watched their game from last week and they played well,’ he said.
‘They have got a very good backline, they love to push the ball out wide and they have two big threats in their centres – one of the best 13s in the league and their 12 has Premiership experience with Exeter.’
Reynolds has named a provisional side for the game as he has a fitness doubt hanging over Tom Teasdale, which could then affect the replacements bench.
Raiders v. Dings Crusaders kicks off at 2pm tomorrow.
Provisional Raiders team
Steventon, Ceillam, L. Batiste, Hillier, Merrien, Shannon, Rice, Horrocks, Teasdale, O. Thomas, Le Prevost, Morisio, Elliott, Aremu, Sayer. Replacements: Anderson, Baron, Creber, J. Batiste, Barnes.
