“We obviously wanted to perform better last week – we had a really tough review of the Ampthill game. We need to take more care of the ball and be more cynical. We’ve got a group that’s keen to find the answers – we’re not an excuse culture, we look for reasons, and we look for solutions. We’ve worked hard to bring this group together – they’re really tight off the field – and they’re working equally hard on the pitch to become a consistent, cohesive unit. We’ve got some guys that haven’t played at this level in this country – they’re being strongly supported by the likes of Champ stalwarts Ben Adams, Billy Walker, Jake Ellwood and Pete White. My gut feeling is it takes more time than we’ve had so far to integrate everybody the way we want to but that’s growing every time we train together.
“I read somewhere that Doncaster are the most promoted club in the rugby pyramid – we’re not too far behind in that respect. They have a great squad – they have aspirations to move higher. They’re ‘Prem ready’ with regard to their facilities and are looking to match that on the pitch. Both of us are coming off the back of results we didn’t necessarily expect last weekend but that’s why Champ Rugby is the ‘proving ground’. We’ll control what we can and maintain our performance goals. We’re very much looking forward to challenging ourselves this weekend.
“We’ve made minimal changes this week. Unfortunately we’ll be missing Sam Asotasi for a while after his knee injury last Saturday – it’s a big shame for him – and us – as he was getting towards peak fitness and was ready to tear it up. Otherwise it’s pretty much the same team and bench as last week. Ruaridh Dawson will start at nine – we’ve brought in Henry Lumley at outside centre from last week’s bench and moved Eparama Rokodrava out to the wing but otherwise we’re more or less unchanged”.
Cambridge Line Up
15 Otumaka Mausia
14 Eparama Rokodrava
13 Henry Lumley
12 Levi Reweti
11 Eli Caven
10 Jamie Annand
9 Ruaridh Dawson
1 Jake Ellwood
2 Dylan Irvine
3 Billy Walker
4 Gareth Baxter
5 Jake McCay
6 Rhys Fulford
7 Dan Eckersley
8 Ben Adams (C)
Reinforcements:
16 John Stewart, 17 Zac Nearchou, 18 Jack Boal, 19 Jack Lawrence, 20 Arthur Thomas, 21 Charlie Bemand, 22 Joe Green, 23 Ardal Yallop