A quick note on last week for those who have seen the score but maybe haven't had the story. We were short a number of players to injury and Christmas holidays. A mixed Hove team went up to play a very good Farnham side who were ruthless on the day. Our troubles were compounded by losing prop Declan Peake in the first 10 minutes and a further injuries to Tom Holborn and George Davies in the first half. After a bit of a banging together of heads at half-time, the 15 on the park showed a lot of resilience in the second half and kept fighting until the last whistle. The Farnham team we played were probably the best side we've faced all season, and the one positive we can take is that the boys who did play should be better off for having run off any festive excesses before returning to league action.

Having played everyone once, this match is Hove's first return fixture of the season. Last time out Deal outplayed Hove on their home patch to beat Hove quite convincingly 34-8. This was Deal's only win of the first 5 games, but they have won their subsequent 6 to push up to 5th in the table and are one of the form sides in the league.

After the loss against Farnham, Hove have a few reinforcements coming back from extended breaks. There's one personnel change in the pack as Ben Anderson comes in at open side flanker, shunting Toby Brown into the second row and Adrian Shergold into the front row. Ben Stephens makes his first league start after impressing against Farnham. Phil Dugard (the People's Captain) returns at 10, pushing Harry Nelson back to 15. Having proved his fitness with a longer-than-planned 60 minutes from the bench, Giles Emmerson is promoted to start at 13 while Ash Parker and Joe Burrowes also return to the starting line-up.

The return of Jack Newton to the coaches' dugout frees up player-coach Ryan Storer to come onto the bench, where he's joined by Ollie Noel and Jack Moore.

Kick off is at 2pm at Hove Rec. The match is proceeded by the Vice President's lunch at the club and the bar will be open from 12 until late (serving alcohol and a wide selection of soft drinks for those partaking in Dry January).