Bedford Preview

Titans

V

Bedford

National Division 1

18th February 2006

Earth Arena

Kick Off 2.00pm

Andre Bester makes five changes, (One positional) to the starting fifteen that narrowly lost at Exeter Chiefs last time out.

In the backs, making his Rotherham debut, Gillan Carruthers starts on the wing. Morne Jonker rotates with Joe Bedford and will start at scrum half and Tom Allen switches from wing to outside centre. David Strettle, fresh from England sevens duty will return on the bench.

In the forwards Jamie Kilbane starts for the first time after impressing Bester at Exeter last week. The other change sees Gareth McComb come in at lock.

Looking ahead to the Bedford clash, Head Coach Andre Bester evaluated the visitor’s strengths when saying, “They are a very good side with lots of experience and they have a number of ex-Premiership players in their squad. They have good ball carriers, are effective in the scrums and line outs and have a very good defence. Only Harlequins have scored more points and conceded fewer.

“They are big and physical and they will be looking to bounce back after last week’s defeat at Penzance. But we owe them one from earlier in the season, we played badly down there.

“Our team selection will now reflect the focus that we have on next season. The critical ingredient of our limited success this season has been the collective will of the players to do well and sacrifice themselves for the cause. I have said before that I am willing to lose games this season as long as the players give 100%”

Earth Titans: 15 Errie Claassens, 14 Gillan Carruthers, 13 Tom Allen, 12 Ledowyk Strauss, 11 John Holtby, 10 Mike Whitehead, 9 Morne Jonker, 1 Jamie Kilbane, 2 Neil Hanna, 3 Adam Hopcroft, 4 Jannie Bornman, 5 Gareth McComb, 6 Hendre Fourie 7 Neil Cochrane (Capt), 8 Scott Donald

Replacements

16 Joe Bedford, 17 WP Strauss, 18 David Strettle, 19 Nigel Conroy, 20 Sam Walsh, 21 Chris Hala’ufia, 22 Louis McGowan. 

Bedford Squad TBA

There’s no doubt which team is in the better form right now, Bedford have lost just one of their last nine games in all competitions. In fact they have only lost three games all season, they being away to Plymouth Albion and Cornish Pirates and at home to Harlequins.

Whereas Roth has lost three of their last six games, they were twice away at Exeter and also away at Plymouth. But there is reason to be hopeful of a Roth victory this week, because other than Harlequins, Roth have dispatched all other sides that have visited The Lane.

Rotherham’s task this week has been made all the more difficult due to a variety of reasons. Strettle and Hala’ufia are on the bench, Blackett is not in the 22 and injuries to Golding and Carey combined with Rawson’s recall to Leicester, mean the front row have a big challenge ahead of them.

The teams have met on fifteen previous occasions in the league (Including the promotion play-off games) and Roth hold a slender 8-7 advantage. Earlier this season when the teams met at Goldington Road, Bedford edged a tight encounter 24-16. But if Roth’s kicking had been better on the day, the result could have been very different.

Prediction time: - I don’t like to go against Roth and will once again resist the urge to do so. Therefore I’ll go for a narrow victory for the home side.

Roth Admin Prediction: Roth by 2

* Denotes Play-off Games

Other Nat 1 fixtures this weekend

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