Cinderford confident for home win v Coventry RFC
Saturday 21 December (KO 2.30pm) National 1
December 20th — Ahead of the festive break Cinderford ends the first half of the season at home taking on ‘local’ rivals Coventry RFC who sit 6th in the table while the Foresters are still in the lower tier, but looking to build on their home game success and climb higher.
Confident to maintain their home game form, Andy Deacon, director of rugby, earlier in the week said: “We reached the half-way point of our season against Esher last Saturday and suffered another defeat on the road. To go there and get the win was always going to be very difficult. They are a top four side and have set themselves up well to push for promotion. It was very difficult conditions to contend with, with a strong wind that you had to manage playing either way and while we showed plenty of endeavour it was ultimately misguided. It was also the first time our scrum and line out has been put under real pressure this season. We’ve previously had a really solid platform but it was shaky on Saturday. That made things even more difficult and we came up short against a better team.”
“So with 15 games left we are fourth from bottom and there’s no doubt that’s not where we want to be.
On Saturday we face Coventry this week and while we’re again under no illusions of how tough it will be, we are targeting a win. I know we can do a lot better than we are at the moment and the positive thing is it’s in our hands. Confidence is low and that won’t really change until we start performing, winning games and picking up bonus-points when we don’t. Nobody is shying away from hard work and we will battle right until the very last game of the season to ensure we make a success of the campaign. There’s no doubt we will give it our all against Coventry and if we get our consistency right we will be good. We suffered many of the same problems as I pointed to last week, and focused on these in training, but I cannot fault the effort of the boys or ask them to give more.”
Team changes this week see Alex Pickersgill move from centre to the wing, replacing Sam Baker, with Robbie Winchle coming into the side at (12). Mike Wilcox returns at full back replacing Stef Hawley who moves to the bench. Will Davis returns from his spell back at Bristol RFC at loose head, and Tom Heard moves to the bench. Tom Bozzard starts for the injured Finlay Sinclair, Ed King returns after recent illness, replacing Lance Randall. Will Keenan comes back in at open side for Joe Garner, and Chris Bundy replaces Lee Fortey on the bench.
Other Cinderford team news sees United travel to Chinnor RFC kick off is at 2pm. Good luck to all teams.
Seasons Greetings and wishing you all a happy holidays.
Best regards, Cathryn
Cinderford RFC v Coventry RFC
Backs:
15. Mike Wilcox
14. Sam Baker
13. Jack Adams
12. Robbie Winchle
11. Nev Codlin
10. Mark Davies
9. Reece Boughton
Forwards:
1. Will Davis
2. Tom Bozzard
3. Elliot Booley
4. Harry Casson
5. Ed King
6. Roger Birkin
7. Will Keenan
8. Adam Balding
Replacements:
16. Tom Heard
17. Lee Fortey
18. Joe Garner
19. Stef Hawley
20. Clive Stuart-Smith