Saturday sees not one game at Footes Lane, but three as Raiders return to action at home to an in-form Westcombe Park, the Guernsey Ladies warm-up the Garenne Stand crowd with their own league clash against Jersey United Banks and, if that is not enough, the Raiders 2nds play their first game in a new truncated JRA league season against Beeches on the old pitch starting at 11.30am.
The Raiders and Westcombe Park know each other well although this will be the first clash with our club under the name of Raiders. Westcombe Park are going very well and lie in the top three having ended Tonbridge Juddian’s unbeaten record last time out.
Jordan Reynolds knowns full well it will be a mightily tough test for his lads, but one that they can overcome with a good performance ‘They have got a very strong squad and I predicted before the season started that they would finish top three,’ said Jordan. ‘It’s going to need a massive effort for us and hopefully it will be interesting.’

Jordan said he is keeping an eye on the weather forecast - predicted to be miserably wet at this stage - before finalising his starting XV, but the good news is that shy of the absent Luke Sayer, he has a full squad available.

That means a return to action for Matt Thomas, who came through a full contact session on Tuesday evening, with flying colours.
As for the Ladies it will be the first ever league game between the two island squads.

Coach Chris Griffiths says while some may see it as a rehearsal for the Siam Cup in May, his side will be approaching it the same way we would do for any other league game. ‘If I am totally honest, preparation for this game has undoubtedly been hampered by so many players being off island for the last week or two for a wedding. However, there has been more than enough groundwork undertaken in previous weeks and although I would have liked training to be more effective we hope everything we have been building towards will stand us in good stead this weekend.’

‘We will be missing a few key players on Saturday due to absence or injury but we still have a really good squad at our disposal and all are willing to play hard and do everything to get our first win of the season. We do of course have history on our side against Jersey having won the last four games against them, but all of those have been one off games in the Siam Cup, so it will be interesting to see how the passion and desire play out for a league game, I am hoping the girls will get just as fired up as always as it is very important we get our season back on track.’

Griffiths has yet to finalise his starting XV but says there will be changes. ‘We will be shuffling the back line a little on Saturday and there are a few combinations that will be interesting to watch to see how they click. Defensively we have to be much more aggressive than we were against a very good backs division from Tonbridge a few weeks ago. I would really like to see us use our attacking game plan better this week as well, we do have a few tricks up our sleeve but as yet haven’t really had a chance to show our hand, maybe Saturday will be the time to do it?’