Raiders will use first defeat as motivation
THE Raiders rivalry with Barnes will be upgraded tomorrow as it becomes a top-three clash in National Two East.
Traditionally, no matter where either side is in the table, whenever they go head-to-head the clubs produce a thriller, but this time Guernsey sit second while the visitors are third and will arrive at Footes Lane just a point behind their hosts, meaning there is even more riding on this encounter.
‘We’ve been playing them for many years now and with Barnes you know you’re going to get a tough contest,’ said Guernsey director of rugby Jordan Reynolds.
‘They’re a quality outfit and they play that “no-mistakes rugby”, so you can be sure it is going to be a pretty tight arm-wrestle.
‘They have always had a pretty good set-piece and they do not tend to play a lot of rugby in their own half, they tend to kick for territory.
‘That’s how they’ve always done it and it’s probably similar to how we’re playing at the moment, so I think it’s going to be an extremely physical contest with both sides looking to make minimal mistakes and it’s how you capitalise on any mistakes that will be key.
‘Our initial aim is to be able to set up this game with another great defensive set because we only missed eight tackles last week and that was a huge effort.’
Reynolds was referring to the agonising last-gasp defeat a week ago at league leaders Tonbridge Juddians, who snatched a 38-37 victory with a touchline conversion having scored a try with time in the red.
He admitted that the disappointment of that outcome had been palpable in training earlier this week, but he believes his players will channel their energy into getting back to winning ways immediately tomorrow.
‘On Tuesday we were a little bit deflated, but on reflection we were probably more frustrated at ourselves because it was a game that was almost in the bag and it should have been put to bed, but we take learnings from it and aim to put those lessons into practice going forward.
‘The burning image we had was that last kick of the game going over, but when you think how close it was, we could have been sitting here with five wins out of five and maximum points, so it shows that our top-six target is realistic – or maybe even more.
‘On one side it has motivated us to get stuck into Barnes this week, but a loss can have different effects on a team so we have talked about the standards required and it will be interesting to see how we react. Hopefully it comes out in a positive for us on Saturday.’
• Guernsey against Barnes kicks off at 3pm on Saturday at Footes Lane.
Provisional Raiders team
Steventon, Burger, Dromantas, Hillier, Hackett, Creber, Rice, Poullet, Boyland, Simmonds, Smith, Dawe, C McGann, Armstrong, Roberts. Replacements: Ceillam, Currie, Welch, N McGann, Colbourne.
