The game takes place at Ellgia Fields on Saturday January 25th 2025 – kick off is at 2pm
Whilst we didn’t get the result we wanted against London Scottish last week, for the second week running the boys put in a shift to score four tries and pick up a very valuable bonus point. The good news, of course, is there’s always another game and we’ve spent the week preparing for the challenge of today’s opponents, which has gone very well. We’ve scored 9 tries in two games against good opposition this year – including England’s ‘next generation’ – and we’ve got to put our learnings from both of those matches into practice this afternoon.
Nottingham’s defeat at Caldy last weekend puts our win up there in September in perspective – it’s never an easy place to go! We’ve had some tremendous encounters with the men from the Wirral over the past few seasons as both clubs have moved up the pyramid and they’re always close, tough games. If we win the battle up front we’ll put ourselves in a good position to take points ahead of our enforced break during the Premiership Cup. We’ve been forced into a few changes today – but the squad as a whole is fully focussed on ourselves and the task ahead.
Joe Green makes his 100th appearance for the Blood & Sand this weekend. Will Glister is back at parent club Northampton Saints. Sam Hanks is back after failing a late fitness test last week. Archie Vanes and Jared Cardew miss out through injury. Kayde Sylvester returns on the bench. George Bretag-Norris retains his place in the starting line-up. Matty Williams keeps his place on the bench and Ollie Betteridge drops out of the matchday 23. Saints loan prop Oli Scola is still with England Under 20s.
Cambridge Line Up:
15-Joe Tarrant 14-Joe Green 13- Sam Hanks 12-Matt Hema 11- Eli Caven 10-Louis Grimoldby (C) 9- Pete White 1 – Zac Nearchou 2- Ben Brownlie 3- Billy Walker 4- George Bretag-Norris 5- Gareth Baxter 6- Archie Benson 7- Ben Adams 8- Jack Bartlett 16- Morgan Veness 17- Jake Ellwood 18 -Jake Bridges 19- Kayde Sylvester 20- Matt Dawson 21- Ruaridh Dawson 22-Matt Williams 23- Josh Skelcey