Hawks aiming to make it two wins on the bounce

Henley Hawks, fresh off their morale-boosting opening day triumph over Guernsey Raiders, will be looking to make it two wins on the bounce when they travel to the Woollams to take on Old Albanian tomorrow (Saturday).

Games between the Hawks and the St Albans-based side have historically been entertaining affairs, and with the weather looking warm for the weekend, we can expect another free-flowing contest between two evenly matched sides.

Hawks Director of Rugby Luke Allen will be very pleased with his team’s performance over Guernsey Raiders last weekend.

The Hawks looked creative and full of energy in their 43-33 bonus point win over the Channel Islanders, and Allen will be hoping for more of the same from his side against tougher opposition in the form of ex-National One side, OAs.

One area Allen will be keen to address was the penalty count against Henley last Saturday.

With the new tackle regulations now in full effect, the Hawks fell foul of the referee and were nearly made to pay the price against a side whose main weapon was their rolling maul.

Off the field, Allen has bolstered his coaching set up with the experienced Rob Cain overseeing the forwards.

Cain, previously the head coach for USA Women’s Eagles, will bring plenty of experience with him.

Also joining him is Tom Redfern who will be looking after the backs.

Redfern was head coach at Henley College and will also provide valuable experience for a side that never quite performed as consistently as they would have liked last season.

On the basis of their opening day showing, there is much to be excited about for the Henley faithful.

John Lacey will take responsibility for the overall defence and Alan Awcock will oversee the attack strategy going forward.

Last season, Henley did the double over the Hertfordshire side.

Winning comfortably, 41-17 at OA last September, the Hawks then put together another excellent display with a 32-8 win at Dry Leas in February in the return fixture.

OA travelled up to Bury St Edmunds last weekend and lost out narrowly, 21-20 after a late Bury penalty won the game for the home side. In terms of team selection, Allen names a very settled side with only one change to the starting XV that started against Guernsey.

In the centres, Harrison Hall makes his first start in Henley colours and comes in for the injured Seb Scott, with Guy Rawsthorn covering on the bench. Kick-off 3pm.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Henley 2nds host Crowthorne at Dry Leas and will be looking to build on their excellent 48-0 drubbing of Thatcham last weekend. Kick-off is 3pm.

The Henley Hawks line-up is as follows: 1 Kadeem Collins, 2 Tom Emery, 3 Rory Mason (c), 4 Marcus Lowe, 5 Sam Lunnon, 6 Will Benning, 7 Scotty White, 8 Alex Bradley, 9 Leo Webb, 10 Max Titchener, 11 George Wood, 12. Adam Hakimian, 13 Harrison Hall, 14 Kaspar Strugar, 15 Toby Evans. Replacements: 16 Istok Totic, 17 Olly Frostick, 18 Callum Ross, 19 Jordan Oatley, 20 Guy Rawsthorn.