Hawks Travel to Dorking

Henley Hawks continue their league campaign on Saturday when the travel to Surrey to take on Dorking RFC. Kick off at Dorking’s Big Field Ground in Brockham is 3pm.

The Hawks will be a little disappointed with the final result against Worthing last week but to be fair, they matched the Raiders for much of the game and it was only in the last quarter that Worthing took control. Henley played some great rugby, particularly in the first half and managed to score four good tries. They should go to Dorking this week in good spirits.

The Hawks have just six games left in the season now including this week’s Dorking clash. Three of those are at home and all of them (apart from this week and the last game of the season against Bury St Edmunds) are against teams in the bottom half of the table and certainly games the Hawks would expect to win. So while any expectations of finishing in the top two have probably disappeared, the team will still be aiming to finish the season in the highest position possible.

Head coach Luke Allen has made just three changes to the starting line up for this week’s trip to Dorking. In the forwards, Rory Mason returns to the front row at prop replacing Ollie Fostick who takes up bench duties. Zak Taylor also comes in at second row in place of Sam Lunnon.

In the backs, the only change sees Rhyan Scott-Young starting on the wing.

15 George Wood, 14 Rhyan Scott-Young, 13 Adam Hakimian, 12  Louis Flynn 11 Leo Webb,
10 Max Titchener, 9 Ewan Fenley
1 Dave Manning (c), 2 Tom Emery, 3 Rory Mason, 4 Zak Taylor, 5 Ben Harrison,
6 Morgan Macrae, 7 Tom Vooght, 8 Alex Bradley

Reps: 16 Ollie Frostick, 17 Tom Hall, 18 Scott White, 19 Omar Ellaboudy, 20 Will Crow, 21 Cail Cookland

Dorking RFC are having an excellent season. Before last weekend they were second but a close defeat away at Guernsey has seen them slip to fourth. They have won thirteen of their twenty fixtures to date including a close 28-24 victory over the Hawks at Dry Leas back in November.

The Surrey club won promotion to National 2(E) last season by finishing second in the London and South East Premier League. However, there has been some close battles between the two clubs before as the Surrey side were in National 2 South for a couple of seasons, finishing fourth in 2014-15, the season that the Hawks won the title. Henley Hawks scrum half Will Crow is a former Dorking player and was the leagues top try scorer that season.

Elsewhere this weekend, the Henley Bulls (2^nd XV) travel to West London to take on Richmond Saxons. Kick off there is 12.30pm.

The Henley Vikings continue their league campaign with an away trip to play Tadley RFC. Kick off is 2pm.

On Sunday, the Henley Hawks Women have a home league match against London Irish. Kick off at Dry Leas is 2pm.