Bournemouth Director Of Rugby Will Croker has been able to call upon plenty of experienced heads for their South West Premier trip to Maidenhead on Saturday.
Unavailability has reared its’ ugly head and Croker is without the services of prop Mike Davies, number eight Joe Rees or full-back Karim Lynch.
However, Croker is able to select the likes of Sam Hardcastle, Andy Spikings and Tom Napier for the 90-mile trip, and he says he is pleased with the personnel at his disposal.
Croker said: “We have got a couple of changes of personnel due to unavailability with Mike Davies, Joe Rees and Karim Lynch.
“Adam Higgins is still unavailable with his head injury but we have been able to bring back Tom Napier, Andy Spikings and Danny Kirkpatrick.
“Sam Hardcastle comes back in after his paternity rest so we have brought back guys who have got enormous experience and between them all, they have probably got close to 100 first-team games.
“So there is some real talent in that lot and they have all been waiting patiently for their opportunity and I know they are really looking forward to getting stuck in.
“It is going to be a tough game in the penultimate game in this round of matches so we want to go up there and give a really good show of ourselves.”
Having seen off their closest rivals in the table at home last week - Ivybridge 20-10 - The Chapel Gate men now sit 11 points clear of the chasing pack.
But with fourth placed Maidenhead playing on an unpredictable 4G pitch to say the least and able to call upon international players, Croker says his men will have their work cut out to make it 12 wins from their opening 12 games.
Croker added: “They play on a 4G pitch which was one of the first ones which was laid so it is an unusual surface for us even compared to the ones we have played on in recent years against Hornets or the one we are going to play on at Havant or Ivybridge later in the season so it is a different surface.
“They have got an experienced side and they have got several guys back this week with a couple of guys who have been playing in the autumn internationals for Holland.
“They have got a couple of guys who have come back in so they are going to be a stronger side then the team who travelled to Barnstaple last week and lost 39-7 so we are aware of that and we know what their threats are.”

Bournemouth: Danny Kirkpatrick; Dan Stewart, Freddie Gleadowe, Scott Chislett, Grant Hancox (Captain); Adam Davies, Mike Pope; Joe Tarrant, Alan Manning, Gianluca Firetto; Ben Roberts, Harry Leadbetter; Jack Hennings, Ben Russell, Ali Bennett. Replacements: Andrew Spikings, Tom Napier, Sam Hardcastle.

1^st Team

2^nd Team

3^rd Team