Cinderford kicks off Nat 1 Campaign on home turf v Rosslyn Park RFC
Saturday 7 September KO 2.30pm

Welcome to the new 2013/14 season and I hope you all had a great summer; here we are back at it for the start of the new National 1 campaign.

After an expansive pre-season campaign that saw Cinderford RFC victoriously beat Championship side Cornish Pirates last weekend, as well as St Austell RFC, Chippenham RFC and Hartpury RFC, the Foresters go into the first National 1 league game against Rosslyn Park, at home, upbeat and full of confidence. The new signings that have joined the squad have applied themselves very well through pre-season and this will only go to strengthen the squad further as the season progresses.

Confident and well prepared, director of rugby, Andy Deacon said: “We have worked hard in pre-season and successfully integrated new faces that certainly freshen up our experienced and talented squad. The new boys have bedded in well and are pushing hard for their first First XV start. Coaches Lee Fortey, Brad Davies, Paul Morris and Isiah Young have worked diligently with the guys on new patterns and play. And on the whole we had a really successful ‘PSF’ programme with four wins from six games featuring the First XV and United sides.”

“Coupled with this we have established an even stronger relationship with Gloucester Rugby in a bid to help us achieve our National 1 goals this season; and we extend a warm welcome to the dual registered Gloucester faces in our squad. Today we start our campaign under the captaincy of Cinderford stalwart, George Evans and with what promises to be a tough game, featuring eight new faces in our 20 man squad. Like us our opponents, Rosslyn Park, have also been busy with a successful recruitment drive this summer and are will present a strong challenge. And we all remember playing them last autumn with a heart-stopping performance that ended in high drama with a 36-36 draw. Today also shows us how important home games are and how essential it is to be victorious at the Beavis Memorial Ground.”

Cinderford United also kick off their season and travel away to Bromsgrove 2 good luck to all teams.

Cinderford RFC v Rosslyn Park RFC

Backs
15. Mike Wilcox
14. Nev Codlin
13. Jack Adams
12. Sam Hanks
11. Lloyd Stapleton
10. Mark Davies
9. Danny Pointon

Forwards
1. Chris Bundy
2. Tom Bozzard
3. Tom Heard
4. Ed King
5. Lance Randall
6. Will Keenan
7. George Mills
8. George Evans (capt)

Replacements
16. Joe Smart
17. Reece Boughton
18. Finlay Sinclair
19. Tom Hicks
20. Stef Hawley