Oxfordshire Preview

Hertfordshire take on Oxfordshire in their last pool match of this season's RFU County Championship Shield competition at Old Albanian RFC on Saturday, May 17th, kick off 3.00 pm

Following last weeks impressive win over Cornwall, Herts are confident of maintaining their place in the Shield for next season, but they would require a large win over their visitors and Cornish win by the smallest of margins over Eastern Counties to have any chance of winning the group.

The Current table is:

P W L Pts Diff Ch Pts

Eastern Counties 2 2 0 +14 4

Cornwall 2 1 1 +53 2

Hertfordshire 2 1 1 - 5 2

Oxfordshire 2 0 2 - 62 0

The Hertfordshire side selected for Saturday is:

Kieron Davies (Ampthill); Ian Crompton (Stevenage Town), Jon Child (Welwyn), Ray Adde (Hemel Hempstead), Nico Burger (Old Ashmoleans); Richard Gregg (Old Albanian (Capt), Ryan de la Harpe (Letchworth); Ryan Long (Tabard), Tavita Faamausili (Stevenage Town), Jim Remfry (Caldy), Peter Coke (Hertford), Robert Dumbleton (Harpenden), Alfie Church (Hertford), Chris Rainbow (Newbury), Ian Hardcastle (Westcombe Park)

Replacements: Paul Welch (Hertford), Handre Schmidt (Hertford), Mark Evans (Old Albanian), Brent Lemiere (St Albans), Adam Gelman (Old Albanian), Gareth Davies (Tabard), Peter Streinberg (Letchworth)

Cornwall ready to end away day blues

Cornwall will be seeking their first away win in three years when they play Hertfordshire at Hertford on Saturday (3.00 pm) in game two in this season's County Shield.

It was May 2005 when the Duchy's senior team last triumphed on the road with an 18-15 success over Gloucestershire at Lydney, though they did manage a 22-22 draw against Oxfordshire at Chinnor last season.

Cornwall could not have got their campaign off to a much better start last weekend when they crushed Oxfordshire 66-8 at Redruth, and new captain Josh Lord believes it sets them up nicely to put an end to their disappointing away record.

"It is a tougher proposition going away than it is playing in front of your home crowd, but I think we have got the players to do it," said the Cornish All Blacks flanker. Everybody is really determined and focused this year. We have got the goal that we want to get to the final at Twickenham and win and everybody has bought into that. It maybe a little harder next week, but we know we can do it."

Any fears of complacency setting in should be dispelled by painful memories of a visit to the same venue two seasons ago, when Hertfordshire pulled off a stunning 31-27 victory against a strong Cornwall side coached then by Chris Brown, Nigel Hambly and Jim McKay.

The Hertfordshire selectors have made a number of changes from the side that lost to eastern Counties last Saturday. The team selected for Saturday is:

Kieron Davies (Ampthill); Ian Crompton (Stevenage Town), Jon Child (Welwyn), Ray Adde (Hemel Hempstead), Mark Evans (Old Albanian; Richard Gregg (Old Albanian), Ryan de la Harpe (Letchworth); Ryan Long (Tabard), Tavita Faamausili (Stevenage Town), Simon Carter (Newbury), Adam Amos (Stevenage Town), Robert Dumbleton (Harpenden), Alfie Church (Hertford), Ian Hardcastle (Westcombe Park), Dave Archer (Henley Hawks). (Capt).

Replacements: Toby Prescott (Tring), Paul Welch (Hertford), Adam Gelman (Old Albanian), Matt Cross (Nuneaton), Jim Remfry (Caldy), Billy Johnson (Hertford), Gareth Davies (Tabard).