‘We cannot get lulled into playing OAs at own game’

Coming off the back of successive away defeats to two sides in the top three of National Two East, seventh-placed Guernsey are looking to get back to winning ways on home soil against the side sitting two spots below them in the table, but the visitors carry a unique threat according to Jordan Reynolds.

‘OAs are predictable in the fact that they are unpredictable,’ said the Raiders head coach.

‘They attack from absolutely everywhere and although we beat them fairly convincingly in the end away from home, one of the biggest mistakes we made at their place is that we got drawn into trying to play them at their rugby.

‘So this weekend it is really important that we try to control the narrative on the pitch, stop them from doing what they want to do by being really solid defensively and then we can try to play a bit more from the set-piece and building phases.

‘OAs have got a really good back three as well as a big pack and with the way they look to play, combined with how we want to play, it probably means it will be a pretty entertaining game.’

Guernsey won the reverse fixture 37-14 in mid-October as part of their run of seven wins from their first eight fixtures.

Recent results along with postponements has seen their season stall to a certain degree, but Reynolds still harbours realistic ambitions of a top-six finish.

‘We are not a million miles away from being at our best,’ he said.

‘We are probably only 5-10% off it, but when you are playing against top three sides, even a small percentage can make a big difference.

‘Now we are back to playing a team who are in or around us, it becomes a different task because they are playing with a different purpose to their game and as far as OAs are concerned, that purpose seems to be to enjoy themselves.

‘That creates different problems for us and we have to slow them down around the park – it is about caging the beast and cutting off a lot of their channels.’

Guernsey stick with the same starting XV as they put out last week at Barnes, but co-captain Lewis Hillier returns to the match-day squad as one of replacements along with Owen Thomas.

n Raiders against Old Albanians kicks off at 2pm tomorrow at Footes Lane.

Raiders team

Dunn, Ceillam, Dromantas, Hackett, Webb, Welch, Creber, Colbourne, Rutledge, Simmonds, Smith, Dawe, C McGann, Armstrong, Roberts. Replacements: Burger, Bray, Hillier, O Thomas, N McGann.