By David Wilkinson
Speaking to Head Coach, Andy Appleyard about Saturday’s contest against 4th place Blackburn, he was well aware of the challenge ahead: “It’s evident that Blackburn has recruited well since last season, they’ve had some very good results. Although last week, for us, was not the result that we wanted, there were some excellent areas of improvement up-front, in both the scrum and the lineout. Ex England player Chris Jones has been working along with Jonah on the line-out and defence, and during the week we have been working hard on the half-back link play”.
With the injury and availability disruptions at fly-half, Harry Oliver moves into the 10 slot to partner Alex Davies in his favoured position. After a long injury lay-off Billy Robinson starts at tight head with Aaron Wilman to impact from the bench. Tom Brand moves into the second-row to replace the injured Josh DeGroot and James Oliver returns after his very harsh red card.
Blackburn will be up for the challenge at Priory Park; whist they lost at Otley two weeks ago, the scores demonstrate that they were no push-over; and against Preston Grasshoppers last week getting a 22-all draw, is on paper, a good result. Macclesfield are still work-in-progress, but last week saw a big improvement in the scrum, plus some excellent line-out play. Andy and the team will be looking for this to be converted into points to move us back up the table.
It goes without saying that the lads will be hoping that the Priory Park faithful will be the 16th man to help them over the line. Kick-off is 3.00pm and a fabulous buffet lunch is available – book online.
