Raiders to take new exam set by Oxford
Raiders host brand new visitors tomorrow as they look to extend their unbeaten home record this season.
Oxford Harlequins earned promotion to National Two East as Regional One Midlands champions and, having taken a few weeks to find their feet at step-four level, they arrive having won two of their last three games to take on a Guernsey side who are coming off the back of only their second defeat of the campaign last week at Henley.
‘It is always a bit of an unknown when you face a new team, but for us it does not change how we prepare,’ said Guernsey director of rugby Jordan Reynolds.
‘I wouldn’t say there is any more or less excitement because we are playing them for the first time, but we feel it is going to be a pretty tough game because Oxford are playing with purpose and not much to lose.
‘They have been putting in some decent performances – sometimes it takes a whole season to adapt to the speed of making a step up, but they have done it fairly quickly and they have shown they are highly competitive across the park for 80 minutes, so we are going to have to be on our A game.
‘They had a really good win against Worthing last week and earlier this season they were fairly close at Barnes, which we know is a really difficult place to go.
‘So we have to get our mental attitude right, give them the respect they deserve, and if we do that then hopefully the performance comes with it.’
Raiders welcome back both Lewis Hillier and John Dawe to their starting XV while Liam Welch is fit to start, having been withdrawn with injury at Henley.
‘Quins are a solid set-piece side and our set-piece last week was not overly positive, so we need to make some improvements,’ Reynolds said.
‘We have identified a few little areas we think we can take advantage of, but to do that we need to improve retaining possession because in the last couple of game we feel we have been trying to force it a bit from first phase.’
Raiders against Oxford Harlequins kicks off at 2pm tomorrow at Footes Lane.
Guernsey Raiders team
Steventon, Ceillam, Dromantas, Hillier, Hackett, Creber, Welch, Poullet, Boyland, Simmonds, Smith, Dawe, C McGann, Colbourne, Armstrong. Replacements: Le Noury, Bray, Webb, Thomas, Roberts.
