Hughes keeps faith

South West 2 East leaders Reading travel to Trowbridge tomorrow for the first time looking to maintain their 100-per-cent start to the season.

Reading field an unchanged side for the match, and Axel Rees and wing Sean Lynch return to the bench, subject to late fitness tests. 

Coach Ben Hughes said: “We’ve got a rotation policy in place, but as people have been away or injured the team has stayed pretty much the same.

“It’s been by no means our best line-up but everyone is really playing for their places.”

While Hughes, who turns out in the second-row every Saturday, is happy with the start his side has made, there are inevitably areas he would like to see strengthened up.

He said: “I think we’ve got to work on our line-defence and on a couple of individual discipline areas.

“I got binned myself for 10 minutes last week and while we want to show teams we are not going to be intimidated, giving away three points could be costly.”

But overall he’s very pleased with the squad and some of the new faces that have emerged.

“Fly-half James Balfry and wing Craig Marshman come up each week from Wales and Mat Cornish is a real Neil Back type player who wins us ball at seven,” said Hughes.

“We’ve also got some great Colts in the second team. It’s not the right time now, but there’ll be plenty of opportunity for the young players to have a game later.”   

Senior players such as prop Ricki Rees still have to return, while lock Warren Ross-Allen is also due back to help with the promotion push.

“We’re not getting carried away with the start we’ve made and at the moment everybody wants to beat Reading,” said Hughes.

“But we’ve got our feet very much on the ground. We’ll grind out a win if we want but we still want to play an expansive game.”

READING: Balfry; Marshman, Vuadreu, Evans (c), Blackstock; Sweeney, Dyson; Pryor, Fisher, Grierson; Blewitt, Hughes; Phillips, Cornish, Heirene. Reps: Rees, Davies, Broster, Lynch. Mollinson.

Injury-hit Blues turn to Bath for help

Patched-up National League 1 side Newbury Blues draft in a band of dual registered forwards to help out against London Welsh at Monks Lane tomorrow (3pm).

Bath prop Nathan Catt plus club-mates Mark Lilley, Adrian Griffiths and Jack Bentall are in the squad as Blues’ injury list mounts.

Latest casualties are fly-half Ben Stevenson (shoulder) and Ien Ascroft-Leigh (knee) to add to the list that includes skipper Paul Fincken.  

Full-back Ralph Smith and hooker Jack Matthews return for Henley Hawks to face Rosslyn Park at Roehampton –  the first of two games between the sides in eight days.

RAF lock Steve Green also returns and could partner new signing and fellow RAF man Neil Tuckett. Wing Pete Davies is also expected to have recovered from the leg injury.

Bracknell entertain Exmouth at Dry Leas in South West Division 1 looking to make it four wins out of five.

Rudal Aiona starts in the back row of a very settled side.

Henley Wanderers head for Swanage & Wareham for in South West Division 2 East tomorrow hoping to make up for last weekend’s disappointing home defeat by Olney.

Wings Dan Cole and Toby Smith replace Gavin Dampies and Charlie Cox in the Tadley Southern Counties South side to visit Ivel Barbarians.

Shire Hall entertain Thatcham in BB&O 1 looking for their first win of the season.

Newbury from: Williams, Hylton, Ridgers, Henderson, Burns, Nutt, Griffiths, Gasson; Green, Clark, Fidler, Catt, Lilley, Noonan, Griffiths, Bentall, Perkins, Fox, Whitcomb, McGregor, Morris, Sweeney.  

Henley from: Smith, Baggett, Flammia, Wells, Davies, Shaylor, Haynes, Turner, Gaunt; Fuller, Gentilli, Tattersall, Matthews, Milford-Scott, Hoosen -Owen, Nixon, Green, Clement, Payne (c), Hennings, Hulland, Williams. 

Bracknell: Budge; McKay, Jones, Nowak (c), Shears; Manupenu, Ap-Dafyd; Mirza, Shelton, Van Zyl; Barry, Borcherds; Sparks, Aiona, Maybury. Reps: Muggeridge, Cimpoias, Cox.

Henley Wanderers: Dudding; Lee, Trower, Cokeley, Higgins; Stebbings, Metcalfe; Robinson, Young, Askew; Thomas, Smith; Woodward, Downing, Dupree. Reps: Higgins, Venner,   

Tadley: Randall; Smith, Pike, Smith, Cole; Dennison, Bailey; Grierson, Wood, Lowe; Harris, White; Roberts, Staley, Murray. Reps: Collins, Vatcher, ANO.

Shire Hall: Porter; Walker, Cullen, Tregurtha, Haye; Brown (c), Morris; Evans, McCormick, Griffiths; Ribbons, Katona; Davies, Perkins, Honeyman-Brown. 

Thatcham: Rance; Niven, Billinghurst, Hudson, Taylor; Tingle, L Evans; Cameron, Libby, Carlick; Langdon, Broughton; J Evans, Grogan, Osborne (c). Reps: Mason, Bell, Hampson. 

Fungai wants repeat feat

How Reading Abbey would love a repeat of last February’s South West Division 2 East 27-17 victory over Bletchley when the sides clash again tomorrow.

Abbey beat the Bucks side home and away last term and, as they are without a victory in four outings so far this season, a win would come like manna from heaven.

Abbey are currently bottom, but are working hard at Rosehill to turn the season around and begin hauling themselves up the table.

Skipper Fungai Mutepfa said: “I’m not panicking. You’ve got to win about five matches to stay in this league and we’re getting better in certain areas and when we have a chance to work on the scrummaging we’ll get even better still.”

The tight is their Achilles heel at the moment as they are going backwards at virtually every scrum and it’s all down to a lack of numbers turning up for training.

“The players in vital positions all work and we can’t train as an eight or a 10,” said Mutepfa.

Chris Burch returns to the centre having recovered from an ankle injury – just in time, as geologist Auriol Gaspa-Rebull, who he replaces, is in the US for a meeting.

Prop Tim Simpson is available having spent three weeks on the touchline following concussion.

While the club is struggling to assert itself in the league so far this season, Mutepfa is confident that they will make big strides forward over the coming seasons.

“There has been a lot of good come out of the last four games and the club is in a sound financial position,” he said. “We’ve also got some good Colts coming through and everything is progressing well, but I would love to walk away with a 3-0 win on Saturday!” 

Abbey will make a late choice on their line-up.

Abrahams boost Gensians

South West Division 1 leaders Redingensians take on Weston-super-Mare at the Old Bath Road tomorrow (3pm) boosted by the return of 25-year-old Emerging Springbok full-back Warren Abrahams.

Gensians have won all four of their games and lead the way from Clifton on points difference.

Newcomer Abrahams played in the opening game against Cleve but tore a hamstring on his way to scoring his debut try for his new side since his move from Maidenhead.

And after a four-week break he’s itching to get back out on the park

He said: “I feel sharp but I’m actually still just a bit stiff and tight but I’ve been given the all-clear.

“It’s a shock for me having to be back into actual training situations again. I’ve done loads of running over the past few weeks and I just want to get back now.”

Abrahams spent 2½ years playing for Stellenbosch University and Durbanville back in South Africa and the Cape Town born full-back has a strong pedigree behind him           

“Rugby is like a religion down there and everyone is really competitive,” he said.

“But this league is not too bad. I had a pretty good run last season with Maidenhead, so I’m just hoping to set myself challenges and do better this season.”

Peter Freeth also returns to the centre this week having missed the Exmouth trip and lines up alongside Jevon Marsh, while Seb Reynolds moves out to the right-wing.

Will Matthews reverts to the No. 10 shirt having played scrum-half last weeks.

Gensians coach Tom Hoines said: “If Weston are unchanged from last season they’ll have a very strong back row, quite in your face, and they’ve got a couple of wingers who are very fast.

“I’ll just be reminding our players of how we are trying to play and of some of things that didn’t quite go so well last Saturday.

“I would rather we got the basics of how we wanted to play down to a tee rather than introduce something new every week.

“We have new players, so it’s a learning process.”

REDINGENSIANS: Abrahams; Reynolds, Marsh, Freeth, Costa; Matthews, Flynn; Breadmore, Clare, Baker; G Marsh (c), Milne; Davies, Lynch, Randall. Reps: Rise, Southern, Allen.