Raiders want to take a fast track to victory

But actually, the forecast of a fine and dry day will have far more influence on Guernsey’s brand of rugby when they face Sevenoaks, rather than the Australian great, with the club’s own director of rugby from down under a well-known advocate of trying to use their armoury to the fullest extent.

‘To be fair, he was a hero of everyone’s in our era growing up – he changed the way the game was played,’ said Jordan Reynolds of Campese.

The Raiders coach enjoyed having the chance to have a chat with his fellow countryman this week, but as usual his focus has largely been on the job in hand, which is particularly specific for the last game in this block of five before a bye weekend.

‘We aimed for 16 points in this block and picking up a point away at Dorking put us in a position to achieve that because we are on 11.

‘It means we have to try and get a bonus-point against Sevenoaks, but that will be easier said than done.’

Sevenoaks are three places and three points below Raiders in National Two East with two wins and a draw from eight games, but Reynolds pointed out that their defeats have come by narrow margins.

‘Sevenoaks are well drilled and play the same way they did when we last played them,’ he said.

‘They are probably very similar to Barnes in that they revert pressure through their kicking game and then their defensive sets.

‘They are a gritty side and stay on for the whole 80 minutes, but there are certain areas we feel we can exploit and the key thing is to get that execution right in order to get on top of them.’

Although waiting on a couple of fitness tests, Reynolds has named a side which sees Malcolm Barnes starting on the wing after his return to action off the bench at Dorking while Callum Roberts is among the replacements, having missed six weeks with a hamstring issue.

Jacob Pinkney is the unlucky one of the three ‘overseas’ regulars to miss out this week.

‘We believe the weather is going to be pretty good so it is going to be a dry and fast track,’ the coach said.

‘We had some selection decision to make and Pinks is rested out with Jordan Smiler going to the second row and we bring Doug Horrocks back in to No. 8. We hope that gives us an advantage around the park, although I’m not one who likes to leave someone of Pinks’ quality out – it’s just what we have to do when we have three [overseas] guys of their calibre.’

• Guernsey v Sevenoaks kicks off at 2pm tomorrow.

Guernsey Raiders team

Steventon, Ceillam, Bray, Hillier, Smiler, Creber, Rice, Horrocks, Simmonds, Davies, Barnes, Teasdale, Smith, Armstrong, Sayer. Replacements: Burger, Bellingham, Webb, Boyland, Roberts.