Spike Rainford keen to avoid complacency against struggling Lydney
Although there are very few teams currently in worse form than Lydney, Cornish All Blacks head coach Spike Rainford expects a tough game against the National League Two South strugglers tomorrow.
The Gloucestershire side have suffered horrific beatings over the past two weekends. They were thumped 53-0 at Worthing before being thrashed 69-0 by Redruth last Saturday.
Lydney are a different side on home soil, however. Although they have won just once on their travels all season, they have won five and lost seven at Regentsholme.
"You have to ignore what has happened to them in recent weeks. If you read too much into things, you do so at your own peril," said Rainford.
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"You can't cruise into the game thinking they have had a bad time of it lately – you have got to be 100 per cent on your own game still. We know what has happened to them and we will just use that as a motivational tool and focus as much as we can."
The All Blacks, meanwhile, have shown they are capable of travelling to difficult venues such as Hartpury College successfully. And they won at Taunton Titans last weekend.
Rainford said: "You've always got to realise that if you're sat on a coach for four hours and get off two hours before a game, it is not always an easy thing to do.
"You've got to factor that in and try to overcome it the best way you can. They are at home and it is a hard place to go – it isn't just the 15 players, it is all their supporters as well. We will just go up and try and do our job and get the points."
The All Blacks' 22-17 win at Hyde Park was hard-earned but Rainford was satisfied with the performance.
He said: "Four points is four points, a win is a win. We controlled the game from the start to the end and we had two cracking tries in the first half and then kept them at bay. Taunton tried very hard in the second half to get back on terms but our defence held out really well.
"That's all we ever need to do. If we can do that every game for the rest of the season, I will be more than happy."
Rainford will still be without influential forward Mike Rawlings but will be able to select Josh Lord and Neil Bayliss after both completed one-match bans last weekend.
Rainford said: "We have got a couple of guys we're waiting on, a couple of knocks and bumps. There shouldn't be too much to keep anyone out.
"Mike is due an MRI scan sometime soon and that will give us more of an idea about what is wrong with his shoulder. As soon as we know that we can set a date for him to come back.
"We were hoping he would be back for the Taunton game last week but that was not to be, so now we will just hope to get him back before the end of the season, get him fit and playing rugby again.
"Josh Lord and Neil Bayliss are both back after their one-match bans so if we do miss anyone out because of an injury we have two great guys coming back into the side.
"Martin Rice had a great game last week, scored a try and was well happy with that. He is available for this week as well."
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