Our final pre-season hit-out is at Bedford Blues on Friday 21st August. Kick Off at Goldington Road is at 7.30 pm. Gates are open at 5pm
Here’re Craig’s thought’s ahead of the trip to Blues…
“We had 34 players represent Cambridge for the first time this year in the Hertford game and the Colchester game last week, which was was very pleasing. We’re building a good squad of Cambridge people and we’ve brought in some talent, but there’re seven or eight Senior Academy guys who played their first game of the season so it felt really good for the whole squad. It was pleasing after the game, too – everyone was in their fancy dress and we stuck around for a pizza and a beer together as well. You know you’ve got something going right when, even though it’s the start of the season, everyone sticks around and outlasted the hosts, which is always good! On the field we had some really clear goals which we wanted to achieve. We probably knew that being a league above in both games, we were probably going to win the games. It was around the processes and the outcomes of the individual parts that we were pleased with, particularly around our ruthlessness on first phase with the backs, so it was really good to see something we hadn’t seen last year around just taking options and creating, not simple tries, but creating first phase tries. I thought our defence looked comfortable, although we weren’t happy with comfortable!
“We don’t want to be nice and clean, we want to be aggressive, so that was one thing that came out of it, some good understanding, but we weren’t quite where we wanted to be. And then individuals, seeing guys for the first time from the first game: Benji Ritson at nine really stood up. I thought Josh Carr at number eight really played well, carried hard, carried well, amongst a couple of others. And in the second game, Callum Smyth really stood out in his first game for us – he was an absolute bull in the loose, and his energy’s infectious. And then Luke Boucher at 10, controlled things, Ruaridh Dawson at nine, kicked well, ran well – they were just two old pros that just sat back and pulled the strings. I thought, too, Jasper Sorrell complemented that, as some of his soft skills that we’ve been working really hard on for two years came into play. So, some really pleasing team – and individual – performances.
“I know there’s a few guys that are probably disappointed with how they played, and we have to remind them that it’s the first hit out and there’s always going to be cobwebs and mistakes. But it’s getting competitive, and we’ve got this one game against Bedford this week. That’s our last rehearsal and our last hit out. So guys don’t want to be – and can’t afford to be – out of form, even at this stage of the season. National One is a very difficult competition from the top to the bottom and whatever, whoever that is, there’re no easy fixtures. That’s why we wanted the Bedford fixture. We want to go in really pushing, and really challenging. That’s going to create some cracks, and we’re going to see who can respond. What does our leadership look like? What is our ‘go-to’? Do we go back to our DNA or do we crack under pressure? That’s what we want this Friday, so that we can see where we’re actually at. That’s the goal from playing someone who is a league above and they are one of the best teams in the Champ.
“There won’t be wholesale changes this week. Jake Parkinson picked up just a short-term injury so he probably won’t play. Nile Dacres is back from a little hamstring niggle so he’ll get his first game for us. Eli Caven is away for weekend, so Ben Gibson will also get his first game this week in the back three. And with the bench, we’re looking at how we can rehearse for National One around a squad of 20, so we’ve got a squad in mind that are our best available for this weekend. In the first 60 minutes we’ll try and mimic as to how we rotate and get the best out of our squad as we’ll have to do in National One. Then we’ve got another seven or eight guys who will come and play, who will be very important to us in terms of squad depth. We’ll take a big squad and everyone will play at least 20 minutes, which I think is important at this time of year.
“The focus for the first team squad will be how we manage that first 60 minutes, and looking for a performance under pressure. It’ll be cool. The club’s got good history with Bedford. We pushed them close last year and I know it’s a completely different context, but it’s somewhere that should be high-scoring. I know they love playing good footy. And this time of year, with a hard track and ambition, it should be just that. Navigating the slope is, again, I don’t know who’s mastered it – other than Bedford – so that’ll be another challenge. Luke Bouchier is not available this week because of work commitments. Oscar Lewis, who will play at 10, will have to navigate playing up or down the hill. It’ll be a massive challenge for him. And he’ll learn a lot from the experience too”.
Cambridge squad to face Bedford Blues
1 Callum Smyth 2 Tom Petty 3 Billy Walker 4 Charlie Friend 5 Nile Dacres 6 Ted Warner 7 Chris Mills 8 Ben Adams (C)
9 Ruaridh Dawson 10 Oscar Lewis 11 Ethan Thorne 12 Jasper Sorrell 13 Jacob Cusick 14 Joe Hill 15 Ben Gibson
Reinforcements
16 Matt Dawson 17 Sam Turner 18 John Petty 19 Tom Campbell 20 Jesse Cotterill 21 Josh Carr 22 Benji Ritson 23 Ben Barlow 24 Jacob Milner
25 Will Wood 26 Max Hubbard 27 Anu Otto