Looking back on last Saturday’s game with Ulster, we had 20-plus guys making their first senior appearances for Cambridge – that was really exciting for the Club – and there was a really big crowd for pre-season. For the first 55 minutes or so, we played some really good stuff – we made some changes around that point which added to our learnings. We did some things really well – there were two or things we were really, really happy with and another two or three we can learn from and layer on. Plus, we scored some excellent tries.
“We go to newly promoted Richmond at the RAG this weekend looking to further assert ourselves and develop our game. We wanted to have an away game to refine our processes off the field, how we prepare for that, how we travel for that, the bus journey – somewhere well-supported and loud, fun, energetic and with a great atmosphere. Richmond is a great club – I’ve spent a lot of social time at the RAG over the years and this fixture is perfect for that.
“They’ve got a good, tight, core group of guys who got them promoted and are still there – they’ve recruited well in key areas and they’ll be excellent. It’ll be a really good test for us. They’ll gauge off this game how their pre -season’s gone – so will we. We want to go out with the right mindset and treat this like a Champ game in every respect. We’ll be taking a slightly smaller squad this week as we look to refine our selection ahead of the Champ opener against Ampthill in two weeks’ time – and we’ll be especially looking at combinations this weekend. There are still any number of places up for grabs ahead of the start of the Champ Rugby season.
Cambridge team to face Richmond
15 Otumaka Mausia (C)
14 Vereimi Qorowale
13 Levi Reweti
12 Eparama Rokodrava
11 Eli Caven
10 Jamie Annand
9 Charlie Bemand
1 Jake Ellwood
2 John Stewart
3 Billy Walker
4 Jack Lawrence
5 Jake McCay
6 Arthur Thomas
7 Dan Eckersley
8 Sam Asotasi
Replacements
16 Dylan Irvine, 17 Zac Nearchou, 18 Jake Bridges, 19 Gareth Baxter, 20 Charlie Friend, 21 Ardal Yallop, 22 Henry Lumley, 23 Taitusi Qainuci, 24 Pete White, 25 Jasper Sorrell, 26 Will Glister