Guernsey director of rugby Jordan Reynolds was quick to pay tribute to his fly-half, who reaches the milestone despite fearing he would have to give up rugby a few years ago due to ulcerative colitis, which ultimately led to surgery to have his bowel removed.
‘Simmo came in as a No 9 and played his first few seasons there before we started transitioning him into a 10 and now he is the starting fly-half for Raiders,’ he said.
‘It is not been an easy journey for him with his condition. There was probably a stage where he thought he might not play again, so to reach 100 games for the club really is a great achievement for him.’
If Simmonds and co want to mark the milestone with a victory, though, they will have to be at their best as Raiders are up against one of the league’s top sides today when second-placed Bury St Edmunds are the visitors to Footes Lane.
‘This is probably going to be one of our tougher contests of the season,’ Reynolds said.
‘They are in really good form at the moment, as their position in the league indicates, and they are really well coached by James Shanahan, who used to be the Blackheath coach.
‘He likes to play very structured rugby, so we are going to up against a good, well-drilled outfit, but that probably suits us a little bit more because when the game gets confrontational we excel, whereas when it is more of a messy game, we can struggle with the management of the game.’
Guernsey will also be up against a familiar face in the Bury St Edmunds line-up as former Raiders Matt Hema has been named at outside centre for the visitors.
Lewis Hillier retains his place in the Raiders second row with Charlie Wilkinson out injured for the foreseeable future having ruptured his ACL. Guernsey have also lost Josh Poullet to injury this week after he broke a bone in his foot.
‘Josh is probably out until mid-January. It was an accident in training on Tuesday, just one of those things we have to deal with,’ said Reynolds.
Liam Welch will start at No 8 with Matt Creber returning to the back row, having missed last week’s thrilling draw at Havant.
‘I think last week we really did miss Matt Creber. He probably averages 22-23 tackles a game and most of those are dominant tackles, so him coming back into the fold is good for us.
‘Losing Josh is not ideal at any time, of course, but Liam has been playing well and so the changes in the back row are not too detrimental for us.’
Guernsey Raiders against Bury St Edmunds kicks off at 3pm today at Footes Lane.
Raiders team: Wrafter, Ceillam, Currie, Hillier, Webb, Creber, Rice, Welch, Rutledge, Simmonds, Smith, Dawe, C McGann, A Armstrong, Roberts. Replacements: Steventon, Dromantas, Cantle, Boyland, Teasdale.
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