St Jacques Vikings travel to second placed Midhurst tomorrow, looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the season. After securing a tough win at the KGV last weekend over Shoreham Ray Smarts’ side know they must produce a better performance against one of the form teams in the league, who are particularly strong at home.

The Vikings have many of their regular players unavailable for the trip, including Nico Ashplant, James Mroch, Chris Croft, James Regnard, Connor Sullivan and Leon Collenette all through injury or unavailability. With so many forced changes Ray Smart will be pleased to be able to call on the services of Academy Colt Matt Creber, UK based Gearoid Lee and Luke Gardner the brother of captain Leon, who makes his return to rugby due to the Vikings shortage of front-row this week with both James Mroch and Nico Ashplant injured, and Alan Myers unavailable through work.

Barnaby Paul who has been a great addition to the Vikings this season starts at loose-head, with Leon Gardner and Luke Gardner at hooker and prop respectively. Brad Webb joins a fit again Jacob Smith in the second row, with last week’s man-of-the-match Mitchell Smith shifting to the blind-side flank. Young Matt Creber starts on the open-side flank and big kiwi Mark Johnson at no 8.

With Ben Holland now departed to New Zealand, Lucas Barker shifts to his natural scrum-half position partnering outside-half Matt Lomas. In the centres Cashel Cahill returns to the starting side, partnering Callum Gladstone, whilst in the back three Tom Teasdale starts at fullback joined with Joe le Roux and Cameron Le Prevost on the wings once again.

On the bench Alex Lock returns along with Gearoid Lee, who will be making his first appearance since September, whilst two new players Ivan Donaldson & Guernsey basketballer Tom Creed are in line to make their Vikings debuts.

This match will be a real test of the Vikings squad depth against the leagues' second placed team currently. Whilst many regular players are unavailable this weekend, the squad is undoubtedly very strong with many key faces remaining.

The return of Luke Gardner provides an unexpected return to return rugby for the talented front-row and he will add some valuable experience with the absence of James Regnard this week. Regnards' replacement Mark Johnson has already proved to be an excellent player in his two outings so far this season, and it will be exciting to see how he goes after having chance to settle into the squad further since his last start in September.

B Paul, Leon Gardner ©, Luke Gardner, B Webb, J Smith, M Smith, M Creber, M Johnson, L Barker, M Lomas, J Le Roux, C Cahill, C Gladstone, C Le Prevost, T Chammings Reps: A lock, T Creed, I Donaldson, G Lee