The first game against Loughborough was played on a greasy Thursday night under floodlights, a total of 34 senior players wearing the forest shirt with pride. The game was played over 4 x 20 minutes, with plenty of changes made by both sides to try different combinations and take a look at some new faces in some competitive action. The final score of 25-5 certainly flattered the away side, with 2 tries created from forest handling errors. From the coaches perspective, the fitness and tenacity in defence especially when Loughborough broke the line were certainly positives, the new players who have recently joined the club all performed well and will be certainly pushing for starts when the league campaign gets underway. Thanks to Leon and his team for coming down to Forest for the friendly game and we look forward to returning the favour for a competitive training session later on in the season.

The final pre-season game vs Vipers was on the whole a lot more encouraging for the Forest coaching staff, with new coach Tebbo watching his new recruits for the first time. Again the fitness and defence was much better than in previous seasons, unfortunately Forest were hit by a number of late cryoffs and a number of players unavailable with work and yachting around the Adriatic. Despite this, a determined 19 players sort to impress the coaching staff. Liam Wann had a barnstorming game at 8 consistently causing the defence trouble at every opportunity with his Billy Vunipola-esque carrying style. Other stand out performances included the returning to 1st XV action of Liam Marlow and Aiden Bray as well as a solid performance from the bench for James Clark in at Loosehead for the first time in a seniors shirt. Forest created plenty of chances and when they got the quick ball they worked hard for, the back line created multiple line breaks and some good finishes. It wouldn't be a forest senior fixture if we didn't make life difficult for ourselves with some defensive lapses and poor decision making allowing Vipers to score. The final score was 30-19 to Vipers.

With pretty much a full senior squad to select from this weekend, there is a real coaches headache with good performances across the board over the 2 preseason games and the effort with training. There is a real strength in depth being created across the club and hopefully this should lead to a more than competitive second team that will push the incumbent 1st XV all the way for selection. As always a massive effort to get to training this week and put your hand up for selection.

Well done to the colts team, who built on their successful finish to last season, putting Nuneaton to the sword with an enthralling win of 61-0 after 60minutes.

This weeks fixtures are as follows:

1st XV- Northampton Casuals (A)
2nd XV- Aylestonians (H)
Colts XV- Southam (H)