McGann returns for Raiders as Roberts is ruled out

After scoring a hat-trick of tries in Guenrsey’s first win of the National Two East season against North Walsham last weekend, Roberts was helped from the field in the closing moments and yesterday Jordan Reynolds revealed that he had suffered a hamstring tear.

‘It’s going to be a minimum of four weeks,’ said the Raiders director of rugby.

‘Sam Steventon has fallen ill this week and Anthony Armstrong is unavailable – that’s a couple of things we did not foresee – so having Ciaran McGann back in will certainly help.’

This weekend Guernsey travel to familiar foes Tonbridge Juddians, who have won two and lost two so far this season.

‘They are a pretty well-established club and it’s going to be another tough test for us,’ Reynolds said.

‘In the two games they have lost, they were not anywhere near their best and they will have been disappointed with their performance at Old Albanian last week [when TJs lost 32-20] so we will be expecting a bit of a backlash.’

However, the Raiders coach added that confidence is building within his squad as their own performances have been getting better by the week.

‘Over the last three weeks we have improved and I think we actually shocked ourselves with how well we competed against Henley Hawks before getting that first win,’ he said.

‘Against Barnes we deserved to lose, but we have not been far away in the other games and we have lost to teams who have played really well. Last week it seemed like everything clicked.

‘We actually noticed a change in confidence in training last week before that win and now we’ve got to take that form into this weekend.’

Raiders team

James Beck, Dan Morgan, Tom Bray, Lewis Hillier, Jordan Smiler, Matt Creber, Dom Rice, Doug Horrocks, Charlie Simmonds, Charlie Davies, Ethan Smith, Tom Teasdale, Ciaran McGann, Sam Boyland, Luke Sayer. Replacements: Tom Ceillam, Darrin Bellingham, Brad Webb, James Burger, Dan Rice.