Luctonians vs. Preston Grasshoppers – Kick Off 3.00pm
Eddie Webster in the act of scoring his try against Otley last Saturday
Team News
Head Coach Michael Lough has the unusual luxury this season of naming an almost unchanged starting line up with the exception of Chris Gale who has gone on his travels and the usual scrum half rotation between Craig Aikman and Sam Kindred.
Danny Madden moves up from the bench with Tom McGuinness taking his place whilst James Mawdsley and Andy Napier join a strong set of replacements.
1 Dan Madden, 2 Phil Mills, 3 Mo Mustafa, 4 Alex Austin, 5 Sam Wallbank, 6 Will Lees, 7 Eddie Webster, 8 Dominic Moon (Captain), 9 Sam Kindred, 10 Lewis Allen, 11 Phil Baines, 12 Jack Ward, 13 Karl Fitzpatrick, 14 Adam Birchall, 15 Sean Taylor.
Replacements:
16 Tom McGuinness, 17 James Mawdsley, 18 Andy Napier, 19 Craig Aikman, 20 Matt Hughes.
Preview
Hoppers make their annual pilgrimage to Herefordshire next Saturday on the back of a hard earned victory over Otley last weekend. Possibly it’s a quirk in the fixtures but we always travel to Luctonians at this time of the season whilst they are scheduled to travel north for the return fixture early each new year.
The visitors will be hoping to take the extra step from last seasons drawn game and gain a first ever victory at Mortimer Park from what will be their fourth visit. Hopefully no more injuries were received last Saturday and the returnees will have gained some valuable match practice
With a view on how this weeks game will turn out, the following statistics might have a bearing. Our hosts lost their unbeaten tag last week at Caldy who had suffered a narrow defeat at Otley’s Cross Green ground the previous week. Similar to our opposition last week who had previously mainly played teams from the lower end of the table, Luctonians have won all but one of their games so far but their opponents all currently sit below us in the league table occupying six of the bottom seven places. Taking this into account an away victory shouldn’t be beyond Hoppers on this occasion especially if they continue how they finished the game last Saturday.
Having only played teams from the bottom end of our league may well be the reason Luctonians currently sit fourth in the table whilst Hoppers, who’s previous opponents are mainly from the top half sit exactly half way after gaining just one place with the five points earned against Otley.
Meanwhile at Lightfoot Green next Saturday, Hoppers undefeated second team entertain Macclesfield who proved to be their nemesis last season whilst the Thirds play Lymm Seconds and our ‘Top of the Table’ Fourths are up against Vale of Lune Thirds.
Photograph courtesy of Mike Craig.
