HENLEY HAWKS will kick off their Division 2 South season with a trip to the South West to take on Redruth on Saturday, September 3.
The Hawks supporters will see their side in action at Dry Leas for the first time the following Saturday when they entertain county rivals Chinnor.
Henley, who were relegated from National Division 1 last season, entertain newly promoted Exmouth on September 24. Barnstaple and London Irish Wild Geese are the other two newly promoted sides in the division this season.
All the Henley Hawks’ home matches are scheduled to kick off at 3pm.
No pre-season matches will take place at Dry Leas this season due to the ongoing building work taking place. Instead the Hawks have linked up with Abbey Rugby Club to use their Rosehill ground at Emmer Green for some of their pre-season preparations.
Henley will play a double header at Rosehill on August 13 when the Hawks will host Richmond (kick-off 4pm) after the Bulls have played host club Abbey at 2pm. The Hawks will then face two away friendlies against UWIC in Cardiff on August 20 and Banbury on August 25.
Meanwhile Hawks director of rugby, Nigel Dudding, has been busy adding nine new faces to the squad who are hoping to bounce back to the third tier of English rugby at the first attempt.
Last season 41 players played for the Hawks in league matches not only because of injuries but because of the dual membership with Premier division clubs who had prior claim on them. This made it difficult to field consistent sides which is unlikely to happen this season.
The new recruits to Dry Leas include loose head prop Brad Cook who has played for the RAF and Bury St Edmunds, prop Ziana Alexis who has repsented Ealing and England U20s, hooker Jamie Cox from the Henley College’s Wasps academy, back row Connor Morrison, also from Henley College who has played for Bath University, scrum half George Jackson from London Scottish, centre Jay Inam Udo Udoma from Esher, winger Steffan Jones who has played for Ebbw Vale and the Wales sevens side and second row David Hyde from Grove. Fullback Alan Awcock, who has played for the Hawks in a previous season has joined from London Welsh.
The players will all meet up for the first time at pre-season training which gets underway in two weeks’ time.
