Raiders must overcome 'chaos' at Westcliff

Buoyed by their first win of the calendar year last week when they defeated Tonbridge Juddians thanks to an excellent second-half showing, Guernsey head to National Two East’s basement boys with their hosts having yet to taste victory this campaign, but Jordan Reynolds is taking nothing for granted.

‘We need to pick up a win this weekend and we’ve only won once on the road this season,’ he said.

‘Westcliff’s style is pretty chaotic. They are usually pretty good for the first 20 minutes when opponents have looked to play loose against them, thinking they can because Westcliff are bottom, but then they get picked off and you can concede a couple of tries before you know it.

‘We have to make sure we have a structure early on and control the tempo of the game because they are going to look to try and break the game up.

‘Morale is pretty good after last week’s win, but we’re fairly grounded as well. If you look at last weekend’s footage, we were actually quite clunky and only hit 61% of our launch plays where we should be up towards 95%, so we have focused on that this week.’

Raiders picked up a couple of knocks against TJs so Charlie Simmonds and Jordan Smiler sit out tomorrow’s game while Luke Sayer has been ruled out for several weeks due to a broken hand sustained in a clear-out last week.

That means winger Callum Roberts, who scored just after coming off the bench last Saturday, returns to the starting XV for the first time .since 12 November.

‘Callum playing well for us has always been a huge plus. If he is on the park and performing well, it will give us a boost,’ Reynolds said.

Raiders team

Steventon, Ceillam, Currie, Hillier, Webb, Creber, Rice, Culverhouse, Boyland, O Thomas, Roberts, McGann, Smith, Armstrong, Davies. Replacements: Pinkney, Morgan, Burger, Rutledge, Teasdale.