Mayfield preview

After the disappointment of last week’s cancelled fixtures Mayfield are looking forward to the visit, this afternoon of the University of Gloucestershire All Golds in the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

The visitors are very much an unknown quantity playing their rugby in the university leagues where they have had a decent showing. Their best performance came against Leeds Carnegie who are widely acknowledged to be the country’s leading side at that level.

Boasting a powerful pack and two strong running centres the All Golds will be going all out to inflict defeat on their illustrious hosts.

Mayfield coaches Matt Calland and Sam Butterworth have worked the lads hard over the last week in preparation for this game and they certainly won’t be taking their opponents lightly.

“We’ve all been in the position of being underdogs and we all know the pitfalls of seeing the favourites go into a game unprepared, well that won’t be us,” said Butterworth.

“We were frustrated at last week’s cancellation but we have no control over the weather. We have taken the extra week as an extra week’s preparation so it can only be a good thing for us.

“We are now ready and we feel good. The lads are raring to go and have trained hard we had an extra session last Saturday where we worked on some plays as well as topping up on fitness.

“This afternoon is when we make it all count, the All Golds won’t be used to playing at our intensity so we aim to hit them hard from the off and go for the whole eighty minutes. We have a big mobile pack with Saqib Murtza, Ben Simpson and Mark Biggins all looking good, Tod O’Brien will, as usual move his forwards around the pitch while in form Eric Johnson will provide a useful link with the backs where new signing Danny Moran is looking to make a name for himself at this level. The centre pairing of Matt Calland and Carl Abrams will have their work cut out but should prove to strong on the day.

“If the game falls foul to the weather today time constraints mean it will, if possible need to be played on Sunday.”

The squad as yet has not been named but there will be a fight for places. Youngsters Danny Slack, Luke Hartley and Tom Greenwood will be in the line up along with the more experienced players like Anthony Greaves, Tony Parker, Phil Cockayne and Curly Kershaw.

Fixtures:
Challenge cup, Mayfield v Gloucestershire All Golds, kick off 2.00pm.
NWC div 4, Woolston v Mayfield kick off 2.30pm.