The Telford Raiders first team encounter with the Coventry Bears this weekend was called off, allowing Raiders to begin the season taking four points out of four.
More importantly it enabled the Raiders to focus on providing a number of young faces with game time against a strong Wolverhampton Wizards outfit.
No less than 12 players made their debut in a Telford shirt, with Craig Guy picking up a debut try as one of the highlights in the 56-16 defeat to Wolverhampton.
Both teams fielded large squads, which led to a number of interchanges throughout.
It was Wolverhampton who adapted the better to the broken nature of the contest and they took advantage of a lack of communication throughout the Raiders’ side.
Despite the eventual one-sided scoreline there were a number of strong individual performances which will give the Telford coaches reason to be optimistic.
The most disappointing moment of the fixture for Raiders was when young Hooker Eddie Foulkes was carried from the field after sustaining ankle ligament damage which will rule him out for several weeks.
Foulkes has made an impressive start to the season and was one of the stand out performers in Saturday’s contest.
Elsewhere at the weekend the Raiders travelled to Derby to take on their counterparts in sunny conditions.
Unfortunately Telford seemed to enjoy the warm weather a little to much in the early stages with a number of defensive lapses and low intensity resulted in Derby cruising to an 18-4 halt time lead.
The efforts of hooker Ben Lewis acted as the catalyst for the young Telford outfit, as he dragged his team back into the game.
He was supported by powerful work in the forwards from Mickey Quickenden and Sam Tandy, which provided the potent half-back duo of Murray Bridgewater and Alex Heath a platform to threaten Derby out wide.
Tries from centre Tom Chard and winger Sam Alvey pulled the Raiders back into the game but their defensive line never truly recovered. Despite two further tries from Raiders centre Nicky Thomas, Derby ensured their ten point victory 32-22.
Raiders Coach Alex Smith was clearly disappointed after the game, saying: “We are producing really effective attacking plays, both out wide and through the centre, but unless our defence improves in several areas we are going to get outscored all season.
“There is a lot of positivity around the new recruits who have come in and really freshened up the squad, but we are going to have to work hard in training to improve our defensive line if we want to be competitive in the league.”
Telford’s under-14s produced the performance of the weekend – facing Derby, the young Raiders were faultless both in attack and defence, led by a man of the match performance from full-back Ross Mcginn who scored 14 individual points (two tries, three conversions).
Mcginn normally the custodian of Telford’s defensive line, produced an exciting attacking display which inspired his team mates to the most rampant Raiders performance of the season so far.
The under-14s have looked promising in training for some time now and if they are able to maintain this early season form then it will take a very good outfit to stop them.
Both the under-14s and under-16s will be at home next week against North Derbyshire Chargers.
Meanwhile the senior team will hope to build on their good start to the season when they face a difficult prospect away to the Birmingham Bulldogs Academy.
All age groups of the Telford Raiders continue to recruit throughout the season so anyone interested in a fun way to keep fit, meet new people, and become part of a team should visit www.telfordraiders.com for information about forthcoming events and traini