Malvern warned of Hereford threat (From Ledbury Reporter)

Malvern warned of Hereford threat

9:10am Friday 13th April 2012 in Sport

MALVERN head coach Liam Hughes insists his side will not be fooled by Hereford’s recent poor form ahead of tomorrow’s National Three Midlands derby at Wyeside (3pm).

Hereford have shipped nearly 180 points in their last three rugby matches, but Spring Lane coach Hughes believes they will be back to fullstrength for the eagerly-anticipated clash.

It promises to be a busy afternoon in Hereford as Malvern also take their academy team to face Hereford, who are the North Midlands Colts Cup holders.

Hughes said: “We will not be taking this fixture lightly as any game at Wyeside will be an enormous confrontational battle.

“After having a weekend off, we expect many of their first XV regulars to have returned to fitness and be fired up for a big local derby.

“We’re delighted to be taking our aademy over to face the well-established and hugely successful Hereford Colts.

“It is testament to the work the club are doing to bring through our talented youngsters and integrate them within the senior section.

“Many of the current Hereford first XV are products of the juniors and colts set-up and we would love to not only emulate them but go one step further by beating them on Saturday.

“It should set the scene for what will be a real battle between the senior teams in our main local derby.

“We’ve always played an attacking game with lots of flair but demonstrated against Hinckley that we can rough it with the big packs in this league when we need to. We’ll need to bring that rough again this weekend to beat a very aggressive Hereford team.”

For Malvern, flanker Ollie Marshall and centre Ieuan Mustow return to the starting line-up in place of the now-departed Swede Rikard Ornberg and the unavailable Nick Miller.

Tomorrow’s Malvern teams First XV v Hereford (away): Milton; Dipple, Mustow, Watkins, Southall; Dixon, Longley; Tsang, Humphreys, Clark, Williams, Gratwhol, Marshall, Jones, Griffiths. Replacements: Pickard, Daws, Fleming.

Development XV v Bromsgrove II (home): Hughes; Bennett, Griffiths, Fraser, Jenkins; Schofield, Oliver; Day, Prosser, Hayes, Wilkes, Green, Clarke, Ryan, Hobbs. Replacements: Rambridge, White, Potter-Farrant, Hughes, Gerry.

Academy v Hereford (away): Carling; Deakin, Budd, Clee, Smith; Cooney, Williams; Sprang, Bourne, Davies, Hughes, Purcell, Parsons, Ziegler, Brown. Replacements: Kilminster, Milner, Butterworth.