Head Coach Craig Newby has selected his squad for the first battle of the new Champ Rugby season, the visit of local rivals Ampthill in Round One. The team will be captained by Ben Adams and there are 13 players making their Champ debuts for the Club.
“We’ve worked very, very hard in pre season. At the beginning I set out a vision for what we wanted to achieve in Year One and the boys have bought into it and are now taking that vision over. We’ve had to rein them in a bit this week. I was very clear at the start to the board and the Club that success is not just measured by winning – although that is extremely important, especially this season. We’ve got a plan – plan A, plan B and a couple of plan C’s – and we’ll do our best to adapt on Saturday. When you’re where we are, with the age of our squad, we’re the underdogs in every game we go into and we love that, we embrace that, and we’ll thrive on that. It’s going to tight and we’ll be scrapping for every point.
“I love the fact that we’re starting against such local rivals. There are many, many boys that have played for both sides, which adds a lot of spice to the occasion. Rugby is an open book now – there are no closed books, no secrets now – everyone can do their analysis on everyone else – we’ve done that on Ampthill – they’ll do the same to us – so we’ve prepared as best we can and control what we can. After the Saints/Exeter game last weekend a friend of mine asked me if I’d settle for a 33-all draw this weekend and I told him I wouldn’t. Paraphrasing Chinese General Sun Tzu, he said “Know yourself and you’ll win some battles, know your enemy and you’ll win some battles, know yourself and your enemy and you’ll never lose a battle’ so we’ll see how that goes.
“The Commercial team have reported that with regard to ticket sales there are more being sold outside of season tickets than in previous years. The excitement is there. Managing expectations is one of the jobs of a Head Coach – we’re trying to be hard to beat, we’re trying to compete for everything, we want to earn the respect of our opposition and be proud of ourselves and we want our supporters to be proud of us too. I’m looking forward to the energy around the squad and the Club this season. We’re at the start of a journey and we’ve got to grow and get better week-on-week”.
Cambridge Rugby can also confirm that Matt Williams has left the club to pursue other rugby opportunities, we wish him well with his future and thank him for his time at the club.
Cambridge Line Up:
15 Otumaka Mausia, 14 Will Glister, 13 Levi Reweti, 12 Eparama Rokodrava, 11 Eli Caven, 10 Jamie Annand, 9 Pete White, 1 Jake Ellwood, 2 Dylan Irvine, 3 Billy Walker, 4 Jack Lawrence, 5 Jake McCay, 6 Rhys Fulford, 7 Dan Eckersley, 8 Ben Adams (C)
Reinforcements:
16 John Stewart, 17 Zac Nearchou, 18 Jack Boal, 19 Gareth Baxter, 20 Arthur Thomas, 21 Ruaridh Dawson, 22 Henry Lumley, 23 Sam Asotasi