Match Preview

POWERFUL 18 NAMED

BACK IN late November playing Amersham & Chiltern provided just the fillip that the struggling Raiders needed to get their National Three London and South East programme back on the rails.

After four successive defeats, a match against the bottom side was probably just what the doctor ordered for the Raiders and a bonus-point victory built on another strong performance from the pack ensured the home side did not let the golden opportunity afforded to them by the fixture list go to waste.

On another day, the margin of victory might have been much greater than 35-15, but Amersham & Chiltern’s delayed arrival and subsequent travel plans meant that the game was late to kick-off and restricted to 35 minutes each way.

Fast forward three months, Raiders are flying but stuck somewhere in no-man’s-land between fourth and sixth in the table, while poor ‘A & C’ still find it all a bit of a struggle at this level.

That said and despite being able to name a powerful 18 to travel, Jordan Reynolds is not getting ahead of himself.

'When they played here I didn't think they were that bad and they had a lot of injuries then,' said Reynolds.

'They wouldn't go to sleep last time and to their credit they kept coming back at us.'

As for the Amersham return match, Reynolds has Kiwi Kenny Hellier and local front-rower Layton Batiste both fit again after back and foot injuries respectively.

Hellier is likely to start on the wing as the coach targets greater opportunism from his backs after the wastefulness of the recent Westcliff game.

Malcolm Barnes is likely to start on the bench but the coach has made it clear he wants to give him more pitch time at No. 9 in the build-up to the Siam, and it may well be that Layton will also have to be satisfied to be among the replacements as he comes back from his mystery foot injury.

SQUAD:
Cameron Craine, Tom Ceillam, Sam Steventon, Nick Merrien, Lewis Hillier (capt.), Dan Hill, Romain Mercadal, Matt Thomas, Adam Nixon, Owen Thomas, Kenny Hellier, Ned Brown, Luke Jones, Sam Whitehead, Luke Sayer, Layton Batiste, Dale Martin and Malcolm Barnes