The scrum-half leads his side in their first warm-up game of the season ahead of a trip to Rams Development later this month (Wednesday, October 29).
Commenting about the challenges ahead, RAF Head Coach Tom Gardner said: “It’s an exciting start to a new season – in previous years we have seen this fixture against the French as our final tune-up before heading into the Inter-Service Championship.
“But this year, we’ve set our ambition differently and want to test ourselves from the very first whistle of the season. This isn’t a warm-up anymore – it’s our standard setter.
“The message is clear: we start as we mean to go on. If we want to win in April and May, we have to be demanding of ourselves early on.
“Traditionally Rams has also been a late-season preparation game, but again, they are a very good outfit who gives my squad the test it needs. “We are deliberately stacking our opening block with tough opposition, because that’s the only way we’ll raise our bar early doors and build the edge we’ll need when it really matters.”
