MAIDENHEAD Rugby Club underlined their bold title ambitions this week, by signing former South African under 19 internationals Jacques Botha and Drikus Mienie.
Botha, brother to Bakkies Botha, who played against England in Perth on Saturday, plays in the second row, while countryman Mienie plays openside flanker.
Coach Simon Edwards said: “We don’t want to stay in South West 2, so I’m building a squad to win the league. We might as well go for it, because if we don’t it definitely won’t happen.”
Fortuitously, the signings come on top of some very good news on the injury front, as influential fly-half Anton Da Silva, who was expected to be out with an achilles injury until next year, is defying medical opinion by making a surprisingly rapid return to fitness.
Edwards said: “His achilles is fine. It's his lungs that have had it. But he's put in a full training session now and we're hoping to get him back to full fitness within the next two weeks.”
On the down side, back rowers Piers Morgan, Robin Bryant and Paul Jones have all picked up knocks, although all three were expected to pass fitness tests last night (Thursday).
Tomorrow (Saturday), Maids hope to take their next step towards the title, when they entertain struggling Salisbury, who are rock-bottom without a point to their name.
Edwards said: “It's a classic banana skin, so we're taking it as seriously as the game against Abbey.
“It's just as important. We couldn't afford to lose to Abbey and we can't afford to lose to Salisbury. If we lose, we've thrown away two points.”
With the club’s sights set firmly on the league, it’s not surprising that Edwards is treating Sunday’s 50-7 cup win over Slough as something of an inconvenience.
He said: “It's not a competition we really want to hang around in when our main priority is promotion.”
However, he had nothing but praise for Sunday’s plucky opponents, saying: “I have a lot of time for Slough.
“They're bottom of the league below us but they were honourable enough to turn up with a very weakened side.
“They never stopped and gave us a good training run. That's no disrespect to them. They tried very hard.”
The win over Slough has set up a clash with Gloucester outfit Spartans in the next round.
Edwards said: “Spartans at home is a good fixture. I wouldn't want to be going down there.
“But with home advantage they will probably be thinking it's a game they don't need.”