Saltash celebrate reaching Twickenham in 2018 after beating Old Cranleighans at Moorlands Lane
SALTASH are hoping for another special day at Moorlands Lane on Saturday when they host London side Old Rutlishians in the semi-final of the Papa Johns Community Cup.
A victory would send the Ashes back to Twickenham for the second time in six years.
In 2018, a bumper crowd turned up at Moorlands Lane to help cheer on Saltash to a 31-15 victory over Old Cranleighans and book them their first trip to English rugby’s HQ.
Head coach Steve Down hopes there will be a similar atmosphere to that on Saturday when they battle it out with the Counties Two Surrey champions Old Ruts, who hammered Reading Abbey 78-14 last weekend.
“We do hope to replicate that atmosphere or even exceed it,” said Down. “We are putting everything on and really pushing for a big crowd and hopefully we can get a good result on the day.”
Will Morton on his way to scoring a hat-trick in Saltash’s last national cup semi-final at Moorlands Lane
He added: “We know roughly how teams from that area play and what they are going to be about, but we’ll just have to see.
“Although they are an unknown quantity, we think we know what we might be up against.
“I think the boys have learnt their lessons from the tougher games recently, which has been great.
“We are going to be really up for it and hopefully home advantage can really count.
“We are pretty much picking from a full selection. We previously had some key niggles, but Debs our physio has been doing a great job behind the scenes. So, we are fighting fit and we could hardly pick a better squad, so we are happy.”
Saltash were beaten by 22-18 by Wath-upon-Dearne in the 2018 final of the RFU Senior Vase and Down feels that defeat is proving a driving force for some of his older players.
“We are used to be close but not quite there so we are hoping to go one step better this time,” he said.
“The good thing is there is a lot of us who were involved in 2018 so we know how it feels, but we would love to go one better and go all the way and win it. However, we just have to take one step at a time.
“I do think we are going to be really up for it on Saturday.”
Saltash had to reach the semi-finals the hard way. They needed to come back from 22-8 down last week and beat Old Patesians in extra-time in a nerve-wracking contest in Cheltenham.
“We started brightly but they really came back at us in the first half,” said Down.
“But then we started to get a grip of the game and played better in the second half and as we ascended, they kind of just dropped away.
“I was thinking we might have a bit of a hangover from the Wednesday (Lockie Cup final) with tired bodies, but we actually out-lasted them.
“It was quite pleasing, but also quite surprising that we played our best rugby in extra-time.
“It wasn’t easy, but what was pleasing was the heart and the want we showed. It did just come down to that and the passion was really there.”
The Ashes are boosted by the return of Lewis Woolaway to the squad. He will start on the bench, while Devon Bennett-Murray earns a start after impressing as a replacement last week.
Saltash: Ryan Cruickshanks, 14. Will Morton, 13. Greg Eatwell, 12. Danny Snook, 11. Jay Moriarty (c), 10. Billy Dover, 9. Lewis Stuart, 1 Simon Nance, 2. Rob Walsh, 3. Liall Honey, 4. Devon Bennett-Murray, 5. Tom Rixson, 6. Lewis Wells, 7. Phil Eatwell. 8. Ryan Rayner.. Reps: 16. Ryan Simmons. 17. Axel Nicks. 18. James Sutton. 19. Lewis Woolaway. 20. Fin Jones. 21.Jason Carroll. 22. Jack Pritchard.