Interim head coach Anthony Allen has announced his side for his first Championship game in charge of the Blood & Sand. The game against London Scottish takes place on Saturday 18th January at Ellgia Fields and kicks off at 2pm.
“We go into this weekend’s Championship challenge against London Scottish on the back of a really good game against England Under 20s last week. Whilst we would have preferred to have played the match as arranged here at Ellgia Fields, with a big crowd behind us, we can take a lot from the performance, especially after the break, at Bedford Athletic. The boys showed a ‘never say die’ attitude which enabled us parity in the second half against a really good England side. We definitely want that to be at the forefront of what we do – that mindset of never giving up – I think that’s really important. We’ve got to keep working hard, improving and scoring tries. We scored five last weekend and that has to be the ambition.
“Scottish come to us on the back of an up and down season, much like the one we’ve had – they’ve beaten Cornish Pirates, won away at Doncaster and beaten Chinnor. It promises to be a really exciting afternoon. We earned our first Championship win at the RAG back in December 2023, that last ditch coast-to-coast drive and Jamie Benson’s conversion giving us a massive boost going into 2024. We were 13-nil up at half-time here back in April but got blown away in the second half. We have to be better today to take the points”.
Kayde Sylvester is unwell and misses his first game of the season. George Bretag- Norris returns to the starting line-up. Back row Archie Benson is back from Northampton Saints and also starts along with Leicester Tigers hooker Archie Vanes. Matt Hema slots in at 12 – Ollie Betteridge rotates to the bench where Matt Dawson also returns. Loan prop Oli Scola is still with England Under 20s.
Cambridge Line Up:
15-Joe Tarrant 14-Will Glister 13- Sam Hanks 12-Matt Hema 11- Eli Caven 10-Louis Grimoldby (C) 9- Ruaridh Dawson 1- Zac Nearchou 2- Archie Vanes 3- Billy Walker 4- George Bretag-Norris 5- Gareth Baxter 6- Archie Benson 7- Ben Adams 8- Jack Bartlett 16- Ben Brownlie 17- Jake Ellwood 18 -Jake Bridges 19- Matt Dawson 20-Jared Cardew 21- Pete White 22-Joe Green 23- Ollie Betteridge