Raiders will be ready from the word go

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WORTHING Raiders Rugby Club head coach Kieron Dawson says his side will be ready and raring to go when the new season gets underway.

Raiders’ National 2 South fixtures were released on Friday and they start away to Clifton on September 5, before they host Old Elthamians in their first home game the following week.

Worthing are bidding for promotion back into National 1, where they spent the 2013-14 season, and they finish the campaign with three out of four matches at Roundstone Lane.

Dawson said: “The likes of Old Albanian and Dorking will be up there and it will be interesting to see the strength of the teams who have come up as some of them have great ambition.

“We found that to our cost last season when Old Elthamians came up and we lost at home to them in the first game of the season.

“It wasn’t that we under-estimated them but we threw that game away. We’ve been forewarned about what could happen and we won’t take anyone lightly as lessons have been learned from last season.

“We expect to have a squad which can beat everybody in the league and that’s the message we’ll be sending out as we really want to get out of this league.”

Raiders have added Brighton College’s Loewy Simmons and Shane Richardson to their squad for next season, along with Worthing College centre Rob Fogerty.

Raiders’ National 2 South fixtures - Sept 5, Clifton (a); 12, Old Elthamians; 19, Barnes (a); 26, Cornish All Blacks (H); Oct 3, Redingensians (a); 10, Southend (H); 17, Bury St Edmunds (a); 24, Cambridge (H); Nov 7, Bishop’s Stort (a); 14, Chinnor (H); 21, Redruth (a); 28, Old Albanian (H); Dec 5, Canterbury (a); 12, Taunton (H); 19, Dorking (a).

Jan 2, Old Elthamians (a); 9, Barnes (H); 16, Cornish All Blacks (a); 23, Redingensians (H); 30, Southend (a); Feb 6, Bury St Edmunds (H); 13, Cambridge (a); 20, Bishop’s Stortford (H); Mar 5, Chinnor (a); 19, Redruth (H); 26, Old Albanian (a); Apr 2, Canterbury (H); 16, Taunton (a); 23, Dorking (H); 30, Clifton (H).

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