Academy announce team for RAF Hawks match

Academy Director John Lacey has announced the team to face the first visit of the RAF Hawks to Vallis Way on Sunday.

There are débuts for flanker Alfie Hill and second row Alex Miller, while Oscar Avis makes his first start of the season having missed the defeat against London Scottish Academy.

Speaking on selection John Lacey said “After the game against Scottish the boys were really disappointed, we had prepared well through preseason and were in good shape, however we made far too many errors and were a little naïve in playing the conditions, add to that 6 players were making their Senior Academy débuts and 3 U18 were involved you can understand why we looked a little disjointed.

This week we have a great opportunity to see how we have learned from our mistakes and if we can manage the game better. Its also great to see a couple more new faces, Alfie has had a bit of a break from playing while in Brazil with the Premiership Rugby programme out there, while Alex is stepping up from the U18 Emerging Player Group for the game, he’s shown excellent focus and works really hard and deserves his place on that alone.

Reon Joseph starts again for the Senior side while still U18, we are very excited about him, he is a fantastic lad and extremely level headed, we think this is going to be a big year for him.

Our loan players are also back home and are keen to show the experience they are gaining in the National Leagues.

We are very proud of our association with Armed Services rugby and having the opportunity to play against the RAF for the first time has caused a real buzz around the squad and coaches, its going to be an interesting game and we can’t wait.”

Kick off on Sunday is at 14:30, entry is as always free, it would be great to see as many supporters as possible cheering the boys on.

Team

1. HITCHCOCK, T
2. JOYCE, C
3. CHAMNAOUI, Z
4. ELLINGHAM, L
5. WAKE, N
6. HILL, A
7. AVIS, O
8. LOWE, M (c)
9. NURSE, A
10. McMINN, M
11. ADELEKE, A
12. TOWNSHEND, L
13. JOSEPH, R
14. SAMMS, R
15. STEADMAN, J

16. BANNISTER, C
17. COLLINS, K
18. MILLER, A
19. KRITKOS, A
20. SEGRE, C
21. NOLAN-HUTCHINSON, C
22. JARVIS, N
23. WALKER, L