Raiders must improve their discipline says Reynolds
THE emphasis has been on the two ‘Ds’ – discipline and defence – this week as Raiders aim to start their National Two East campaign with back-to-back home wins.
Guernsey overcame the first-half sending off of Tom Ceillam to beat Worthing 24-16 in their season opener a week ago and they will look to double up this afternoon when Westcombe Park visit Footes Lane, but director of rugby Jordan Reynolds admitted that they will need to be better if they want to accomplish that.
‘We know the biggest area to improve on is discipline,’ he said.
‘Having a red card on top of 16 penalties for the game is far from ideal, so we have to reduce that penalty count and we have identified a couple of areas which should help us do that.’
However, he added that his side’s response to the red card last week was encouraging.
‘Playing with 14 men is very tough in rugby, even if it is for a yellow card it’s pretty intense, so if you’re a man down for 50-odd minutes, like we were, it does take a lot out of you,’ Reynolds said.
‘But we still had a really high tackle completion rate and something I have said to the boys this week is the fact that we can rely on our defence to get us out of a tight spot is really enthusing for us.
‘Overall, we were generally happy with last week’s performance. The way we game-managed the second half was good – I think we would have lost that game last season because we would not have been smart enough when we went down to 14, so we are learning.’
The enforced absence of Ceillam, who will be suspended for three weeks, is one of three changes in the Raiders tight five this week.
James Burger starts at hooker while Martinas Dromantas comes in at loosehead with Sam Steventon having been ill during the week.
In the second row, Brad Webb replaces Lewis Hillier.
The back row and the back line remain unchanged to face a Westcombe Park side who also started their season with a home win.
‘They are going to have a bigger pack than Worthing, physically they will be a step up and they had a really good win over Bury St Edmunds last week, so it will be another really tough test for us.’
• GUERNSEY’S match with Westcombe Park kicks off at 2pm today and is part of a double-header with St Jacques Vikings taking on Bournemouth Seconds at noon.
Provisional Raiders team
Dromantas, Burger, Currie, Webb, Hackett, Creber, Rice, Poullet, Boyland, Simmonds, Smith, Dawe, C McGann, Armstrong, Roberts. Replacements: Le Noury, Steventon, Welch, Thomas, Colbourne.
