Head Coach Craig Newby Has Chosen His Squad For The Trip to Birmingham Moseley
The National One season opener takes place at Billesley Common on Saturday 5th September and kicks off at 3pm
Here’re Craig’s thoughts on tomorrow’s contest:
“It’s exciting – you can feel the butterflies in the group, in the energy. We’ve switched from low-key and chilled, we’ve got time, to “it’s on!” We’ve been reflecting this week on the journey to this point – the introductory camping weekend which was primarily a social opportunity, but the boys took that trip by the horns and ran with it and forged a very strong identity as a group. It’s similar to last season in that respect with the number of new players but they’ve really grasped, first and foremost, how we want to play and how we want to play for each other. The majority of the guys live locally, we’ve got a lot of Academy guys coming through too, which is adding to the group and the identity as well.
“Expectations are high but the reality is it’s going to take time to gel – without trying to make excuses we’re going away to Moseley. It’s a tough place to play and they’re a good side and they’ve been through some change as well and they’ll be a dangerous side. We’ll do our due diligence on Moseley – we’ve had a look around some of the stuff they’ve done in pre-season. We have to respect them and they’re a good side – we need to do our homework. But, as with most teams at his time of year, it’s 99% about what we’re doing. We’ve just got to control things around ourselves and that’s what we’re focused on and I’m sure they’ll probably do the same thing this week. Some of each side will be known to the other but we’ve got to be all about us.
“Clearly, we want to win. They’ll want to win as well. But that’s my goal this weekend. We’ve recruited to allow us to play the way we want to play. We want to entertain and play attractive winning rugby. We want to move the ball and be aggressive and combative in attack and defence. Rugby should be played with ball in hand. It should be played fast and free flowing – and it should be fun. But we want to win.”
New signings Jake Parkinson, Joe Hill and Callum Smyth all miss out through injury, likewise Charlie Friend and Matt Dawson. Northampton Saints pair Ben Alexander and George Tonga’uhia come in. Tom Petty, Nile Dacres, Josh Carr, Luke Bouchier, Will Wood, Ben Gibson and Oscar Lewis all make their competitive Cambridge debuts. Other debutants are amongst the reinforcements – John Petty, Ted Warner and Benji Ritson.
Cambridge Squad
1 Tom Petty 2 Ben Alexander 3 Billy Walker 4 Jake McCay 5 Nile Dacres 6 Ben Adams (C) 7 Chris Mills 8 Josh Carr
9 Ruaridh Dawson 10 Luke Bouchier 11 Ethan Thorne 12 Will Wood 13 Ben Gibson 14 Eli Caven 15 Oscar Lewis
Reinforcements
16 Ben Shamley 17 John Petty 18 George Tonga’uhia 19 Ted Warner 20 Benji Ritson