Guernsey forced into changes for trip to Worthing
PUSHING the league leaders to the limit has come at a cost for Raiders.
The physicality and intensity of last Saturday’s narrow defeat to Blackheath has taken its toll on the Guernsey squad, who now have to face the other two clubs in the top three in consecutive weeks, starting with a trip to second-placed Worthing tomorrow.
‘A few guys have not pulled through this week, which is a shame but we will go again,’ said director of rugby Jordan Reynolds.
‘There will be a bit of a swap round with the squad and we are still waiting on one or two fitness tests before we finalise the team.’
Raiders are set to be without Tom Ceillam, Ciaran McGann, Jacob Pinkney, Jordan Smiler and Charlie Davies, while James Burger and Darrin Bellingham are also unavailable.
The news on Ceillam, who was helped off in the first half against Blackheath having suffered a knee injury, is that the injury is hopefully not as bad as Raiders first feared, but he is unlikely to feature until after the next bye weekend in mid-March.
Considering the way they have been left licking their wounds, Reynolds described his side’s performance against Blackheath as a ‘double-edged sword’.
‘For Tuesday’s training we dialled it down because the bodies were sore, but for the mindset, how we got so close in that game and the fact we had a 93% tackle completion, having missed only eight compared to the 27 against Bury St Edmunds – that’s the confidence booster we needed,’ he said.
‘We went into Blackheath knowing that we had to push ourselves to those margins, but you are also prepared for the hangover that comes with it.
‘Against Blackheath we went some of the way to creating that trust in ourselves we need to compete with the top sides.
‘We have got Blackheath, Worthing and Dorking one after another and this little block was always going to be our toughest one, but I would probably rather have them all at once rather than spread out, and I would probably want to start with Blackheath because we have beaten Worthing and we should have beaten Dorking away, so you can build confidence off the Blackheath performance going into those next two.’
However, Reynolds added that the styles of the top two sides in the division are like chalk and cheese, making this weekend’s challenge in the battle of the Raiders completely different to what they have just faced.
‘Blackheath are very physical, very tight in defence and very structured. Worthing are the opposite in that they play loose and unstructured.
‘They have scored more tries than any other team from turnover ball – when it comes to scoring they do so more off turnovers than what they create – so our mindset has to be if we make a mistake, we are going to have to transition into defence very quickly.
‘We cannot afford to turn the ball over too often at Worthing, so we are going to try and turn it into a set-piece game, a physical game, because if we can slow it down to the pace we want, it takes out the element of the Worthing back three.
‘There will probably be opportunities there for us to play loose at times and we’ll have to run with it if we see an opportunity to attack, but generally when we are kicking it will be to put the ball out and when we are building phases we will be a bit more patient and take it to phase three or four rather than looking to strike off phases one or two.’
