Raiders happy to be back at home

After a one-match-only sojourn on the ‘club pitch’ at Footes Lane for their first home fixture of the season while the refurbishment work was carried out on the athletics track, Guernsey get to run out in front of the Garenne Stand hoping that their loyal fanbase will cheer them on to victory over fellow top-five side Tunbridge Wells.

‘We have a lot of new faces who haven’t had the opportunity to play on it yet, so they are excited by the prospect,’ said coach Jordan Reynolds, who then joked: ‘For me, it’s good to be back on that pitch and knowing where all the cupboards are for our equipment – it was all a bit disjointed for the Brighton game.’

Both sides suffered their first defeats of the season last weekend and Guernsey also lost some key personnel to injury in the reverse at Rochford Hundred.

Although they are still waiting on some test results, Reynolds reported that Blair Campbell will be in a cast for six weeks and the coach added that ‘I’d be surprised if we saw him playing before Christmas’.

Tom Teasdale has a 7cm tear in his hamstring that will sideline him for around a month and Layton Batiste is waiting on a scan on his knee problem.

The enforced reshuffled in the backline has led to the management team opting for the double-playmaker option of moving Joe Andresen to fly-half and shifting Owen Thomas to 12.

The Welshman will be joined in midfield by Asher Veamatahau, whose twin brother, Naki, will be on one wing.

The Armstrong brothers, Matt and Anthony, complete the three-quarters, with Anthony playing at fullback.

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‘One of the big driving forces behind the selection is that we are wanting to get back into our style. At Rochford we felt we got pulled into playing a bit direct,’ Reynolds said.

‘To do that it makes sense to have two of our better passing players with their hands on the ball more.

‘Also, Owen has the biggest voice and one of our best attacking brains so this allows him to create from one out and he will organise things.

‘We had Joe at 10 and Owen at 12 at Colchester [in pre-season] and it was successful there, so we thought we would take the punt this week.

‘We could have had the twins in the centres, or Matt Armstrong in there, but if we want to play in the appropriate channels we opted to put our best two passers in there.’

The pack largely remains the same, although Sam Steventon starts at loose-head prop this week with Cameron Craine, who put a big shift in at Rochford, coming off the bench.

In looking at the opposition, Reynolds reiterated his view that ‘from Rochford to Tunbridge Wells – it doesn’t get any easier’.

‘Tunbridge Wells did lose to Hertford last week, but to be fair they had nine players out from their team from the week before. It looks like those guys are back this weekend,’ he said.

‘They remind me of Hertford in that they play the open channels and are not a team wanting to get caught in an arm wrestle.

‘They are going to be a tough outfit to play against.’

Raiders v. Tunbridge Wells kicks off at 2.30pm tomorrow at Footes Lane.

Raiders team

Sam Steventon, Tom Ceillam, Jacob Pinkney, Lewis Hillier, Brad Webb, Courtney Raymond, Dom Rice, Doug Horrocks, Jake O’Connor, Joe Andresen, Naki Veamatahau, Owen Thomas, Asher Veamatahau, Matt Armstrong, Anthony Armstrong. Replacements: Cameron Craine, Leon Gardner, Luke Sayer.