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HORSHAM RUFC SEASON PREVIEW

HORSHAM RUFC SEASON PREVIEW

Richard Ordidge6 Sep 2015 - 15:01
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Horsham Rugby Club have now completed their 2015/16 pre-season following promotion to London South East Division 2.

The Green and Whites last year achieved a historic league and cup double, winning London South East Division 3 and securing a convincing win against Crowborough to be crowned Bob Rogers Sussex Cup winners.

Head coach Nick Stocker, who begins his fourth season in charge at Coolhurst, is expecting a fiercely competitive season this time around.

He said: “We are definitely here to be competitive and know that we are capable of causing a few shocks. Whilst this is of course contingent on availability we have the players to compete at this level.

We have been strengthened by Simon Gaynor joining us from Worthing. His impact on the training paddock and his quality are there for all to see.

Andy Gray has returned from playing National League rugby at Chichester showing dynamism and his own brand of power rugby.

Adam Clayton has come down from London to add depth to the second row, Jordan Harts has joined from Worthing and offers different options in the backs, Ollie Harcus has also arrived from Worthing and shows versatility in all positions in the pack and Matt Blake from last year’s Colt’s looks an assured player.

There are a couple of additional recruits in the pipeline, which will add greater depth and make us more competitive”.

A series of testing pre-season friendlies have been arranged which Horsham have narrowly lost to Dorking Seconds 26-21 and to Cobham 20-14. Stocker however is not disappointed.

“We have been a little disjointed with unavailabilities but we have had a couple of good run-outs. I have bene encouraged by how pre-season has gone and the games have shown what we can achieve and that the step up to London 2 is not beyond us.

For long periods against Cobham we were the better side but we were not clinical enough. We have eleven potential players first team players to come back into the selection mix which bodes well for our depth of squad.”

Horsham’s season kicks off at home to Ashford at 2:30 pm on 12 September in the first round of the Intermediate Cup, and then league action commences on 19 September away to Tunbridge Wells who are one of the promotion favourites.

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