Raiders ‘need two wins out of next three’
RAIDERS have reached a critical juncture of their inaugural National Two South campaign if they want to remain at this level, according to their coach.
Tomorrow, Guernsey travel to Old Redcliffians, the side immediately below them in the league table, before they host basement-boys London Irish Wild Geese next week then return to the Bristol area to face Dings Crusaders a week later and Jordan Reynolds has his sights set on a minimum of two wins from that block of fixtures.
‘We have looked at these three games as being hugely important for our season,’ he said.
‘If we cannot get two wins from the next three games, we are going to find ourselves in trouble.
‘This is a big run of games for us now coming up to Christmas.’
On a positive note, following their first weekend off since getting their campaign under way, the injury problems are beginning to ease for Raiders and Reynolds has named what he called ‘one of our strongest sides of the season’ to face Old Redcliffians.
Although Nick Merrien is unavailable, Matt Thomas returns to the pack and will take his place in the second row, while Luke Sayer and Malcolm Barnes are part of the match-day squad too.
‘There’s definitely experience there,’ said Reynolds, who has the added bonus of Jason Batiste being able to travel this weekend.
‘Before this week, we did not have that and our combinations were constantly changing.
‘But the experience that Malcolm Barnes, Luke Sayer and Jason Batiste bring is so valuable and around them we have got some quality players as well – the likes of Alex Gow, Elia Morisio and Anthony Armstrong – so to have that in the backline is really important to us.
‘Hopefully the strength of the side we have been able to select will be reflected in the game.
‘Certainly, this week we will be looking for our bench to have an impact on the match.’
Raiders team
Steventon, Ceillam, L. Batiste, Hillier, M. Thomas, Creber, Rice, Horrocks, Clemett, Greenhalgh, Gow, Morisio, J. Batiste, Armstrong, Sayer. Replacements: Anderson, Craine, Shannon, Barnes, Bolton/Ahne.
