We look forward to welcoming Chobham to Penn’s Place for our first fixture of 2026.

Our previous 3 tussles with Chobham have been abrasive and physical, and we will expect no less from them this weekend as we anticipate another confrontational encounter, particularly at the breakdown area.

We shall not be taking Chobham’s league position lightly as they’re scorelines have generally shown them to be competitive, despite not being on the right side of the end result – they have a handful of really good individuals who can punish teams across the park and we will be alert to that.

We are of course returning from a 3 week break over the festive period, and the coaching group really are hoping that the consumption of mince pies, chocolates and extra volume of alcohol have now started to subside amongst the playing group, and the ‘lung-ometer’ will be kind to the lads acrss the 80 minutes. We have strung together a number of good performances in the lead up to Christmas, and were very pleased with the end result at Guildford in our last fixture picking up all 5 league points away from home to a very challenging Guildford outfit, who were gathering momentum themselves going into the last game of 2025.

We were extremely proud of the group to see out the game in the manner that we did having had to play the last 15-20 minutes with 14 men due to 4 match ending injuries, and with only the ability to use 3 replacements the group had to dig deep to cover the extra ground.

It has been quite helpful from a player recovery perspective having the 3 week rest window as we have been able to re-coup 2 of those players back from injury and are again included in the squad to face Chobham.

We are also blessed with the opportunity to field the same backline in consecutive games for only the 2nd time this season. Seb Tuff contributed well from the centre at Guildford and has earned another run there and the back 3 partnership of Charlie Muir, Eddie Matthews and Joe Knowles at full-back having scored a hat-trick on his last outing will be looking to exploit the opportunities in those wide channels.

Up front we are forced into some personnel and positional changes, but our depth and player versatility up front gives us a selection we have every confidence in. Jackson Clarke has regretfully for us decided to take a break (only for now we hope) from rugby which presents the returning Sam Janaway with an opportunity to impact the game from the off, partnered in the front row by Captain Dan Sargent and Sam Brown at hooker.

Liam Perkins returns to the fold, having missed the Guildford game to visit Santa in Lapland – his gift is a place in the 2nd row alongside Zac Conley, giving us back row mobility in the front 5. Back row sees Greg Jansen return to the side in the absence of injured Alex Robinson, with Jack Janaway and Karter Whittock making up the rest of the trio.

We are excited to get back out there and throw the ball around in a bid to play some enterprising rugby – we hope the weather is kind enough to allow us to do that, and we welcome as much touchline support and noise as you can muster!

Up the Field!

Keen to hear more ahead of todays game? Read our matchday programme through the document below: