Havant are coming to Footes Lane in good form having claimed back-to-back wins over Westcombe Park and London Welsh while Guernsey have lost three in a row having endured probably the toughest possible October in which they faced all other sides in the top five.
However, director of rugby Jordan Reynolds reported yesterday that his players are in a positive frame of mind following last week’s encouraging performance in defeat away to league leaders Oundle.
‘Sometimes when you take a loss, it can be a heavy hangover, as we put it, but that has not been a factor this week. Everyone has been really energised,’ he said.
‘We know we made mistakes, but we are never going to get on top of the group for trying things and making mistakes, we just need to be that little bit better.
‘If we can just reduce our error count by two or three per game, it is going to make a huge difference.
‘We are not looking for players to be uncomfortable looking to play. If they are afraid to make mistakes, they are not totally focused on what we are trying to achieve, it is just small margins will make a difference.
‘But the attitude from the boys this week has been really good. Tuesday’s training session was horrible weather-wise, but everyone just cracked on with the job in hand and they are excited to take on Havant.’
Raiders will be without prop Charlie Currie, who is set to be sidelined for three weeks after picking up a hamstring injury against Oundle.
A couple of other players will also have to undergo fitness tests before the side to face Havant is finalised.
It is a battle of fifth against eighth, but only five points separate the sides in the table.
‘Havant are quite a loose team to play against and they can make it quite difficult to break them down defensively,’ Reynolds said.
‘They have a bigger focus on their attack than their defence. If you look at their results, they are all high-scoring affairs and their outlook seems to be to back themselves to score more points than the opposition.
‘For us, that will pose a bit of a different challenge to recent weeks and we know that Havant have the ability to strike and cause teams problems.
‘There are a couple of things we have to do. We have to be really strong defensively, but ultimately defence is just one part of it – we have to stop giving teams cheap opportunities to score points against us. Against Oundle, we had three intercepts [against us] for 21 points, which did the job for them.
‘On attack, when we are getting opportunities, it is about making them count. A fair few times we got into the Oundle 22 but did not strike. When we have limited opportunities, we have to make them count.’
Raiders against Havant kicks off at 2pm tomorrow and is the second part of a double-header with Raiders Seconds taking on Havant Thirds at noon.
Guernsey Raiders provisional team
Bray, Callery, Stockton, Shenton, Broadhurst, Creber, Rice, Poullet, Simmonds, Parks, Smith, Dawe, C McGann, A Armstrong, Roberts.
Replacements: Cantle, prop tbc, Webb, Teasdale, Davies.
