ROYALS RFC welcome league leaders Eastbourne II to Grainville tomorrow for their first game of the new year, after last weekend’s clash was called off due to bad weather conditions.
Royals currently sit comfortably in fourth spot in the Harvey’s Brewery Counties 3 Sussex League, with five wins and three defeats from their eight games.
However, the Caesareans have not tasted victory on the field since their thumping 40-10 home win over Midhurst back on 17 November last year.
Since then, they have suffered defeat to the impressive Burgess Hill, as well as a home walkover victory and last week’s postponement.
Tomorrow’s opponents Eastbourne II have had an excellent campaign thus far, sitting at the summit of the division with eight wins and just three defeats from their 11 games.
They boasted a four-game win streak at the back end of 2024 stretching from 9 November, which saw them brush aside Burgess Hill, Shoreham II, Horsham Barbarians and a walkover win over Midhurst, before they were surprisingly beaten at home 22-24 by Haywards Heath II.
The leaders recovered well after the festive break however with a closely fought 31-26 home win over Barns Green last weekend, so will be full of confidence heading over to Jersey tomorrow.
The two sides have met already this season in what was a thrilling encounter at Eastbourne’s home ground back in October.
The UK side came out on top that day, but only by a narrow 26-22 margin.
Royals vice captain Pearse Moloney spoke ahead of the crucial clash, saying: “We’re really excited to get back into the thick of it this weekend.
“Obviously we were disappointed that the game was cancelled last weekend as we were looking forward to getting back onto the park after a few weeks off.
“We have managed to take some positives from it however. The silver lining is that we had another week of training to prepare us for tomorrow’s really tough game.
“Having time off over the winter break can have an adverse affect on your body, especially in a heavy impact sport like rugby.
“Despite last week’s cancellation, we have been able to get another full week of hard training in and the whole group feel fully fit and fresh for tomorrow’s game.
“I know the boys were gutted to have lost to Eastbourne so narrowly earlier on in the season, however we have beaten them at home before and, with a full squad, I do like our chances for tomorrow.
“We know it’ll be a really tough contest, Eastbourne are top of the league for a reason.
“But we have an excellent group and, at home, we believe we can beat anyone. We’ll be coming at them full force tomorrow and will look to right the result from October.”
Royals RFC welcome Eastbourne II to Grainville Playing Fields tomorrow, scheduled for a 1pm start.
Royals RFC squad: [1-15] Sam Dillon, Jack Lowe, Ben France, Josh Twohig-Jones, Conor Bisson-Mercury, JJ Le Feuvre, Fraser George, Cam Halliwell, Connor Devenny, Mungo Rioda, George Burke, Aidan Dobney, Christian Weald, Pearse Moloney (c), Ben Pearson
Replacements: Brodie Sutton, Charlie Dixon-Smith, Sebastian Wijsmuller, Lewis Ham-Howes, Hugo Reid, Marcus Brandon, Ross Williamson, Zak Le Marquand
