After two strong wins in friendly competition against Worthing Raiders A and Old Dunstonian, Hove kick off their London 2 campaign the same way they ended it last season - with a trip to Deal & Betteshanger.

Last Season’s Result

Hove were victorious on that day, coming away with a 38-30 win to finish in sixth place. The victory, and the one the week before against Heathfield, were a positive spin on what had been a difficult 2017 with Hove picking up no victories, although a number of bonus points - both try and losing - combined with a very strong first half of the season assured Hove of a better finish in 2016/17 than the season before.

Squad News

Hove have held on to almost all of the players that ended the last season and Head Coach Sandy Robertson will be happy that all four of the Sussex players who played in the Twickenham final against Oxfordshire back in May are available for competition after Ian Saunders was an injury doubt. “We’re hoping to set the standard high for the coming season. We’ve got a new look coaching set up that’s helped our players improve and we’ve been working hard to keep the tempo of our game really high."

The squad has been strengthened by the addition of Ryan Storer, who joined us as a player-coach from Worthing over the summer. Despite only a cameo appearance in the Old Dunstonian game, Storer’s experience caused some damage in the scrum and Hove will be looking to utilise that to press an advantage off the bench. Ben Anderson, Jerome Pye and Dave Sparkhall all make their league debuts after featuring in the games against Worthing and Old Dunstonian.

Player to Watch

Our player to watch for the match is none other the the captain Sam Whiting. As a specialist sevens player who has had some great success over the summer, Hove have found innovative ways to utilise the skills he’s developed over the sevens season which has already been confounding teams.

Hove Squad

1. Declan Peake
2. Alex Maguire
3. Adi Shergold
4. Carl Buckland
5. Ian Saunders
6. Andy Chapman
7. Ben Anderson
8. Rob Ward
9. Jerome Pye
10. Carles Casanova Galindo
11. David Sparkhall
12. Martin Macdonald
13. Ryan Morlen
14. Rene Pavlides
15. Sam Whiting
16. Ryan Storer
17. Pat Andrews
18. Phil Dugard