Too many players are out because of injury, work or holidays.
‘We are seven players short of a full strength team,’ said coach Dai Burton.
‘Andy Allan has a problem with his eyes and will be out until the Guildford game, Dave Miles has an injured foot, Justin Thomas and Roger Quirk are unavailable, John Allo injured himself in the trial.
Ian Christie is back in training again but unavailable.
.
.
but it’s good to see Christian Butler back in the game.’There is another new player in the team, Danny Ireland, an Australian who will play flanker on Saturday, in a back row which sees the evergreen Pat Dean and Ian Henderson take up the other two places.Realistically, against a Richmond XV which has been unbeaten for two years, and whose intent is such that they have recently returned from a training camp in Italy, Jersey’s main aim should be damage limitation.However, in their home game against them last year, the Island side’s defence was exceptional and they gave them one of the toughest games of the season.’We’ll be putting a lot of emphasis at the start of the season on defence,’ said Burton.
‘Against Richmond in the tight last year, we held our own, although they had the edge in the loose.
So we’ll aim to attack up front and in the middle of the field.
We know they are taking us seriously, because we offered to pay their air fares to play over here.
They turned us down.’While the Powergen Cup is Richmond’s way of proving they are good enough to play against the ‘big boys’ again, for Jersey the competition is a distraction from their real aim this year – to finish in the first two in London South-West, Division III, and to climb out and up to the next division.Team: Jon Brennan, Doc Snook, Scott Barnes, Dan McAlister, Chris White, Ian Henderson (captain), Pat Dean, Danny Ireland, Chris Butler, Jon Swift, Arnou Helmholt-Kneisel, Steve O’Brien, Matt Howe, Jim Milner, Mark White.
Reserves: John Larose, Paul Woodcock, Ross Allen, Paul Nayar, Dan Curzons.
