COUNTIES One Western West gets off to a bang on Saturday with Tavistock hosting nearest neighbours Plymstock Oaks in a derby match at Sandy Park.

Both sides are likely to have a different look about them to when they played in the corresponding fixture early last season, which ended in a narrow 27-26 win to Tavistock.

Tavistock have lost captain and top points scorer George Hillson and Seb Cox to Launceston, Al Spicer has moved away, Jack Easton is heading to Australia, Conor Packwood is injured and doubts remain over a few other players after a summer of change at Sandy Park.

There’s also been plenty of change at Horsham Fields, where Tom Richards, Matt Finn, Chey Bryce, Al Thomas are among those to have moved on to other clubs, but Oaks have welcomed some new faces including Lewie Riley and Suliasi Naulivou to their squad and promoted some of their talented colts from last term.

Oaks finished third last season and head coach Lewis Paterson hopes they can at least match that or even better it.

“Personally, I want to win the league,” said Paterson. “We let it slip last year when we were about 12 points clear.

“I think probably the club’s ambition is top four, but I can see the depth and some of the players we have got in the squad. We have also got youth coming through.

“We have really built a solid forward pack with Richard Edwards coming in as our forwards coach. He has done wonders.

“I think other teams in the league will be thinking that we might be the team to beat.

“They will have seen how we did last year and will be expecting a tough game, whereas last year they probably took us for granted a little bit after nearly getting relegated the season before.”

He added: “There’s been a good energy this week. In pre-season we were able to look at players and I think this is the game we can put it altogether.”

Paterson is looking forward to having a derby game in the opening fixture.

“There’s a bit of friendly rivalry between Plymstock and Tavistock,” he said.

“It’s a game that everyone is pretty up for.

“There’s a couple of players with knocks, but we have quite a strong side to roll-out on the weekend.

“I think we are pretty confident we can go up to Tavistock and do a number on them.”

As well as losing captain and top scorer Hillson in the summer, Tavistock’s head coach Joel Caddy also stepped down.

Hooker Hammy Kerswill has returned to the coaching set-up, along with Andy Yates, Martin Budden and Darren Chappell.

“It is a bit of a re-build,” admitted Kerswill. “We are not short of quality at all, but maybe just short of depth.

“If we can get regular availability every week then we will compete and do all right, but it’s those weeks where you have three or four away that will mean our twos will struggle a bit.

“We just want to be competitive and play some rugby. If we do that then wins will come, but you do need bodies on the pitch and some consistency with it.”

He added: “All clubs have to rebuild sometimes and thankfully for us it’s not a full rebuild. It’s also a chance for people to step up.

“Those youngsters from last year the likes of Callum Baker, Jack Giddy and Liam Watts are all stepping up to become the next Shuey (Andrew Schuttkacker) and (Martin) Budden.”

Although Tavistock would have loved to have kept Devon scrum-half Hillson, everyone at the club is happy to see him try and test himself at a higher level.

“It was absolutely right for George to go,” said Kerswill. “He should have really gone three years ago. “We do wish him well and I am glad he has gone, although really I’m a bit disappointed he hasn’t gone even higher.”

Kerswill thinks starting with a derby against Oaks could be a good thing.

“At home we have done okay against them, the problem has just been the away games,” said Kerswill.

“I don’t know how Oaks are looking, but we’ll see.

“We can only concentrate on ourselves and ultimately, we want to be competitive.

“We know we are not short of quality players, but it’s just getting them all out at the same time.”