‘Down to the bare bones’, that was the honest squad assessment from St Jacques Vikings Head Coach, Ray Smart, as his side prepare to travel to Maidenhead tomorrow.

A perfect storm of injuries, covid cases, unavailability and also needing to support Guernsey Raiders with several players this week, has meant that the Vikings travel with a depleted squad to Berkshire tomorrow.

This game has already been postponed once this season due to poor weather restricting the Vikings getting off the island, and at times this week it looked like a miracle would be needed to keep this latest edition on. However the persistence of the Vikings coaching team has paid off, and they have been able to assemble a squad of 17 players.

‘It has been challenging to get a team out this week, there are occasions like this in a season where several players become unavailable through various reasons and the pressure is on, but this is a very unique situation with so many players not available to us.' said Smart.

'I am pleased we have been able to put together a side, and to get the game on. I really appreciate the guys stepping in to help us.'

'We can now go and give it our best shot, we still have a side filled with good rugby players, albeit some are out of their regular positions, but I'm looking forward to seeing how we get on with no pressure on our backs.' he added.

Taylor Quate, Dale Rutledge, Michael Jamieson and Michael Smith are all deployed to the Raiders this week, whilst Alex Lock, Callum Gladstone & Mitchell Smith are all in isolation currently. Added to that Jacob Smith, Reece de Jersey, Phil Le Noury and Tom Bray all out with injuries, whilst many others are also unavailable currently.

The good news is that many of the Vikings regular backs are available, including captain Matt Lomas who starts in the centres this week. Pierre de Garis is back at scrum-half after missing a few games, and Gearoid Lee partners him at fly-half. There is one debut on the wing for Jonathan Groves, but the rest of backs Tom Veillard, Jean-Luc de Garis & Kieran Creber have been regulars this season.

Harrison Sauvarin makes his senior rugby debut this week in the forwards, whilst James Mroch and Barney Paul will add some continuity and experience to the front-row. Chris Croft, who has performed exceptionally well this season starts in the second row, with former Guernsey Colt Louis Buensoz. The latter is now based in the UK armed forces, but is available this weekend and steps in to help out.

The most notable inclusions in the pack are in the back-row. Tom Rihoy is again available which is a huge boost for the Vikings. He has starred in their last two games on the flank, and will add huge power and add additional dynamism to the forwards.

Cashel Cahill, usually a centre or winger will scrum down alongside Rihoy in the back-row, but this is a position he has played previously. Ivan Donaldson, a former Viking who has been away from the setup for a while steps back into the fray to complete the forwards.

Rolling back the years on the bench, two Guernsey Vets in Mark Stone & Alec Bailey provide the reinforcements, having answered an SOS call.