After what seems a long break since the A’s narrow defeat to Jersey Reds at Dillingham Park in the Greene King IPA Championship, the 1st XV resume their RFU Championship Cup campaign with an away trip to Coventry Rugby.
The A’s were given a rude awakening to Level 2 Rugby when Coventry visited Dillingham Park in September with a 17-47 defeat. We finished the first block of cup fixtures with a record of Played 3, Won 1, Lost 2 – the highlight being an away win at Blues who visit Dillingham Park in the reverse fixture on 14th December. Tickets on sale now here
By comparison, Coventry finished with a record of Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1 – including a narrow defeat to Ealing Trailfinders who as the holders are also targeting the cup for silverware this season and visit us next.
With most of our dual-registered players being recalled this week for Premiership Shield duties, the A’s squad tomorrow will be more familiar to the traveling Maroon and Gold supporters with Sam Hanks and Jarryd Sage returning from injury in the centres and Leon Fukofuka and Luvuyo ‘Papi’ Pupuma making their full debut’s for the Mob. Louis Grimoldy assumes responsibility of Captain with Dave Ward, Darryl Veenendaal and Billy Johnson on the bench.
Paul Turner – Head Coach of Ampthill Rugby “It’s been a long first block of the season and the squad have enjoyed their week off. We have chosen to make a number of changes to the side that were maybe unlucky to come out of the Jersey game with only a losing bonus point, and to give a number of others a chance to stake a claim for a place in the starting side going forward.
Coventry have had an excellent start to the season, and it will give us a chance to see how far we have progressed since we played them at Dillingham Park in our first ever game at level two.”
The full squad
15 Lynch, Karim
14 Asiedu, Kwaku
13 Sage, Jarryd
12 Hanks, Sam
11 Baker, Nigel (Sam)
10 Grimoldby, Louis (Capt)
9 Fukofuka, Leon
1 Tonga’uiha, Soane
2 Blackmore, Syd
3 Pupuma, Luvuyo
4 Burgess, Carl
5 Williams, Henri
6 Langley, Rob
7 Dominguez, Facundo
8 Molitika, Maama
16 Ward, Dave
17 Lutui, Aleki
18 Christie, Ben
19 Johnson, Billy
20 Hudson, Sam
21 Bercis, Joe
22 Veenendaal, Darryl
23 Bordoli, Serafin
Kick-Off is 3pm at Butts Park Arena, CV5 6GY. Live scores on Twitter @AmpthillRUFC
