In finishing off their ‘Fourmidable October’ of top-five clashes, Guernsey head to league leaders Oundle, who boast the only remaining perfect record in the division with a magnificent seven bonus-point wins out of seven.
Jordan Reynolds’ men also won their first five games, but lost a bit of momentum with back-to-back narrow defeats – 26-19 at Dorking and then 29-24 at home to Esher – before the first bye weekend of the campaign.
However, they hope to return with a bang in Northamptonshire.
‘We had a few injuries in the last game before the break, but everyone is turning around and saying they are fit to play in this one,’ said Guernsey’s director of rugby.
‘The keenness to get into this game is outstanding. Everyone is really excited.
‘Coming off two tight losses, this is just a great opportunity for us and, as I have said before, these are the games you want to play in. You want to play against the best sides in the competition and play against guys who have played at the top level and Oundle have got quality across the park.
‘They are the only undefeated side in the league at the moment and have former Premiership and Championship players in their side, the likes of Tom Collins who has been at Northampton Saints and Ealing, but that just makes it more exciting than anything for us to go there and test ourselves.
‘There is something just a little bit more about this one.’
Despite losing to Esher in their most recent outing, Raiders actually climbed up to third place in the table due to picking up both available bonus points while Old Albanians only gained one in a 46-27 defeat at Henley and, while Reynolds was annoyed in the immediate aftermath of that match, he now reflects positively on the first batch of fixtures of the season.
‘We have had some tough games and we have probably made them a little bit tougher with our recent performances – against Esher we were pretty disappointed not to close out that game – but every game has been slightly different and having a week off allowed us to have a good review. We have been finding a few points we were not aware of, engaged with those and are looking to get back on track,’ he said.
‘For Esher we probably did not play our best attacking rugby, but we still scored four tries, got two bonus points and only narrowly lost the game. Our frustrations were probably more centred around not getting the win, but I think our expectations have set a higher ceiling this season because we want to improve every week and, although we have lost a couple of games now, we are still far better off than we were this time last season.
‘I can see teams losing a fair few games because of the quality in the league. Every team is strong at home and every team has their good days, so I think this league is not going to show its true face until around Christmas time.’
RAIDERS TEAM
Wrafter, Callery, Currie, Shenton, Broadhurst, Creber, Rice, Poullet, Simmonds, Parks, Smith, Dawe, C McGann, A Armstrong, Roberts.
Replacements: Cantle, Stockton, Webb, M Armstrong, Davies.
