Minehead trip is winnable, says Services' Burgess

DAVE BURGESS reckons Devonport Services will be a force to reckon with by Christmas.

Until then, the Services' team manager is looking for two to three wins to get the city side away from the wrong end of the table.

Burgess said a repeat of last week's home performance against leaders Kingsbridge – when Services lost by a penalty with a few minutes to go – would do nicely at Minehead tomorrow.

Minehead are a place below Services with the same number of points – three – but Burgess said he did not see the match as must-win.

He said: "We should have come away with a win last week and if we play anything like that, with the same commitment, we should be good enough to beat Minehead.

"I wouldn't say it is a must-win game, but I would look at it as winnable – maybe a should-win game.

"If we can get two or three wins by Christmas, we'll settle into a side and be able to compete with anyone.

"We lost quite a few players before the season started, some of them in pre-season training, when they decided to move elsewhere.

"You can't lose seven or eight players and expect the team to gel overnight."

Prop Smudger Smith misses tomorrow's game because of work commitments, but Tony Sibley, who was unavailable last week, returns to take his place.

Devonport Services (from): C Ranscombe, D Hall, S Sheldon, J Hannaford, B Ashford, M Anstis, M Lane, J Gerraty, T Sibley, S Bartlett, J Martin, M Gregory, J Page (capt), D Chorley, S Hammond, M Andrews, K Leach.

TAVISTOCK can achieve two targets tomorrow against Tiverton (3pm) – move up a place in the table and win their first game at home.

The West Devon side have become away day specialists after two victories and two draws on the road.

Both their defeats this season have been at their Sandy Park home.

Moving up the table to fifth will depend on the team winning well enough to overtake Okehampton, who entertain title hopefuls Wadebridge Camels.

Tavistock (from): D Lloyd, M Hennessey, J Kaminski, M Wicher, D Luffman, R West, A Moy, M Kerswell, W Tompkins, M Martin, A Hunt, J Bruner, W Brown, D Law, B Williams, T Childs, E Williams, A Wright.