1st xv to play Horden away on 8th Feb at 1415 - Andy Hall, Daniel Shuttleworth, Luke Menzfeld, Pete Twentyman (captain) Darren Kelly, Josh McFarland, George Bambrick, Sean Ramsay, Lewis Chater, Jonny Winterhalder, Connor Taylor, Jack Hearn, Sam Busby, Ben Kelly, Shaun Stewart, Louis Matthews, Adam MacDonald, Jamie Ogilvie
This week we travel to Horden after some ideal preparation in a 45-0 win over North Shields. Saturdays opponents were incredibly heavy, picking 9 trained front rowers in their squad. Horden historically have had a massive weight advantage over us but we know that with sustained effort levels we can overcome this disadvantage. Horden are likely to be much stronger than Nth Shields so we will have to step up our all-round game if we are to prevail.
Luke Menzfeld come back into the starting line up as we experimented seeing how our lightest pack could cope last week. We have gone for a more balanced approach this week in a hope to win our own set piece ball and compete at the line out via Darren Kelly, Josh McFarland and George Bambrick. We go for two loose forwards on the bench in order to sustain effort over the 80 mins - Louis Matthews and Adam MacDonald selected after playing well for the two's last week.
The back line shows enforced changes as out go Sam Devey, Dylan Murphy, Ben Forbes and Ben Wollerton from last weeks set up. The match will see two debuts as Jonny Winterhalder gets his first team debut at ten. In addition, Jamie Ogilvie will be off the bench and the current colt will cover both 9 and 10. High praise should be given to our colts set up - John Clapperton, Steve Gittins and Rob Ogilvie have done a great job bring through talent to the first team and into representative honours.
Ben Kelly is the final player lifted from the 2's to the 1's - an experienced first team player, Ben will hope that Sam Busby and Jack Hearn will put him into space on Saturday afternoon.
The boys are hopeful for a good performance on Saturday at a difficult venue. However, we have prepared well and are ready to make it three wins in a row.
Good luck to all our sides - up the Vos !