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2nd March 2019 - Preview & Team Selections

2nd March 2019 - Preview & Team Selections

Tim Holling1 Mar 2019 - 22:23
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1st XV host Old Alleynians. 2nd XV are also at home vs Fordingbridge

After the opportunity to rest players from both squads last week, we see the return to League competition this week at Gosport Park. Both teams are at home, the 1s host Old Alleynians and the 2s welcome Fordingbridge.

This weekend has the potential to set the tone for the remainder of the season for the 1s, with the bottom two teams within the league (Effingham and Leatherhead v London Exiles) and the need for Gosport and Fareham to take points at home against Old Alleynians.

If Gosport do not collect any points against the opposition and Exiles gain a 5 point victory, they would move above Gosport and Fareham in the league with only 4 games remaining. The 1s are feeling confident of getting as result against Old Alleynians due to the way they performed against them on their home ground. We were in the fight until the last 5 minutes where their experience in close encounters came to the fore and they closed the game out. We did make some individual errors and got exposed in a couple of positions which cost us the losing bonus point. So looking back at how we played then and how we play now, there is a significant change for the better. We need to stay composed and trust in our processes and structure and we will achieve our targets and aims.

Training this week has been focused on common areas for development across all teams, this has not been wholesale changes, it has been little tweaks to what they are already doing as we are only talking about small margins from turning those games for which we have lost into victories.

Unfortunately the coaching and management staff are being caused selection dilemmas due to injuries and non-availability. Therefore some players may be asked to play in a position which they may not have played for some time, however the coaching staff have the utmost confidence in their ability to complete the task in hand.

This does unfortunately have the potential to have an impact on the team available to play for the 2s. Following recent performances they are in good spirits and looking forward to the challenge Fordingbridge will pose. Also some of the players were fortunate to play in the mixed team in the knockout competition at the weekend. This allowed the coaching staff to see the players in a game with a good opposition, some players did themselves and the club proud and have put themselves in contention for selection for the 1s.

1st XV Selection
1: Jordan Carter
2: Alex Collard
3: Daniel O'Donoghue
4: Simon Trivett
5: Toby Woodford
6: Callum Fraser
7: Jimmy Wallis
8: Aiden Price
9: Wesley Dugan
10: Dane Smallbone
11: Samuel Gee
12: Kieran McRoberts
13: Chris Brettell
14: Benjamin Smith
15: Shaun Taylor
16: Peter Erne
17: Max Page
18: Matt Forfar

2nd XV Selection

1: Darren Reddin
2: Kyal Jones
3: Nathan Titchener
4: Max Plummer
5: Grant Reddin
6: Jonathan Flynn
7: Tom Lillicrap
8: Luke Carey
9: Joe Collard
10: Harvey Field
11: Iain Grice
12: Darren Pankhurst
13: Ian White
14: Iain Woodhouse
15: Jamie Gerathy
16: Elliott McMullen
17: Alan Jackson

Further reading