BARNES ASSUMES CAPTAINCY
MALCOLM BARNES will skipper the Raiders on their final away trip of the National Three London & South East season away to Guildford tomorrow.
But it will be a far from full strength XV that the Kiwi leads out, as head coach Jordan Reynolds nurses his squad with the big clash against Jersey less than a month away.
Absent for the game in Surrey is our regular captain Lewis Hillier, Nick Merrien and Dan Hill, all missing through injury, plus the unavailable Cameron Craine and Ned Brown.
Owen Thomas, Sam Whitehead and Jason Batiste also remain on the sidelines and Blair Campbell is still away.
Reynolds remains confident, though, that the travelling squad has sufficient armoury to complete the double over Guildford, who were swept aside at Footes Lane.
Young Callum Gladstone will play on the wing, while budding scrum half Ben Holland is on the bench, as is another emerging youngster, Brad Webb.
Luke Sayer returns at fullback while Kenny Hellier moves into midfield to take over from Brown at centre.
The new half-back partnership of Barnes and Adam Nixon gets another 80 minutes together.
SQUAD:
S Steventon, T Ceillam, L Batiste, R Mercadal, L Skovronek, P Ryan, D Martin, M Thomas, M Barnes, A Nixon, C Gladstone, K Hellier, L Jones, D Davison, L Sayer. Replacements: N Ashplant, B Holland, B Webb