The visitors from West London are one of the oldest clubs in the game, and their professional 1st XV plays in the RFU Championship alongside Jersey Reds and many other highly established sides such as Newcastle Falcons.

Whilst no professionals will run out on the KGV turf this Saturday, the Vikings are expecting to face a strong side, packed with young talent who are keen to make a name for themselves, and they know they must be on their best form in front of their home crowd as Ray Smart explained:

“The boys are excited to be getting back out on the field after several weeks off. In our last game we pushed Bournemouth right till the last twenty minutes, but then came unstuck. We’ve worked hard since then to try and stop that happening again, and I hope on Saturday we can see some of that improvement.”

“We are expecting Ealing to be young, fast and to have good skill sets, so we will have to be on our game to ensure we can deal with that.”

The Vikings have had a bit of a mixed season, and they certainly have been forced to improve by the step up to the Raging Bull Shield rugby (the new league sponsor) and they have been improving week by week which will please Smart.

Leon Gardner is back to skipper the side on Saturday, and he will be joined by Darrin Bellingham and Nico Ashplant upfront. Tom Creed and Dave Harvey are quickly becoming the go-to second-row pairing for the Vikings and they both start this week.

In the back-row Nick Merrien is back for the Vikings and starts at number 8, whilst Alex Lock returns for his first start of the season, with Mitch Smith joining the trio.

Lucas Barker is required by the Raiders, so Tom Veillard starts after his strong showing from the bench against Bournemouth and pairs with Matt Lomas. Callum Gladstone is also back in the side pairing up with Dave Davison in the centres, whilst Gearoid Lee starts at full-back with Kieran Creber and Cam le Prevost are on the wings.

The bench is packed full of power and experience with two Smith brothers Jacob & Michael and James Regnard also poised to make an impact. Alec Bailey will also be likely to bring his vital experience amongst the backs in the latter part of the game.

Kick-off is 2pm at the KGV.