City of Derry travel to Limavady for Q2 North West derby

The two clubs had contrasting starts to their Ulster Rugby Championship 2 campaigns last week, Derry slipping to defeat against a strong Ards side while the Roesiders scored an 18-10 home victory over Grosvenor.

Form, however, is never much of a factor on derby day, especially given it's only the second game of the season though Beddow acknowledges his new look young team will have to get used to being a 'scalp' for other clubs if they are to restore the fortunes of the Judges Road club.

"It is early days for everyone in this league at the minute," explained the Derry coach, "This is Limavady's second home game in a row and, listen, we have come down into this division so City of Derry are the club that most of the teams in this league won't have played in a competitive fixture before, or certainly not for a long period of time.

"So this is a real opportunity for clubs within north west rugby to get a hit at City of Derry, to make themselves the 'big' club rather than City of Derry who have historically been the big club in the area.

"It is the perceived 'big fish' that teams want a dig at, even though we're all at the same level now. It's just a historical fact that the club have been to higher levels than most of the other clubs so they'll be thinking, 'Now's our opportunity to show we are the bigger club in the area'.

"Our guys have to adjust their mentality to facing that. I don't want to hammer home the fact, and I probably won't have to, but Limavady will be so up for this game on Saturday and we have to meet that head on. We have to meet their want to win, and want it every bit as much as they do."

And Beddow knows from personal experience that the tight surrounds of the John Hunter Grounds can make for an intimidating environment for visiting teams.

"Having played against Limavady in my playing days and coached against them afterwards, I know Limavady is always a very tough place to go to," he added, "The fans are right on the touchline, there are no barriers like you'd see at some other grounds.

"The fans are right there on the touchline and really support their team so it can lead to quite a hostile environment and we have to be ready for that because everywhere we go, having come down into this division, everyone is going to want to have a dig at us."

Derry go into the game with mixed news on the team front, the absence of SIX players from last week's encouraging display against Ards offset by the availability of number of players who missed the season opener.

Out injured is Cathal Cregan and Davy Graham, although the latter will face a late fitness test on his arm while Nathan Campbell, Lowry McCollum, Chris McCann and Isiah Morris are all unavailable.

Far from ideal for Beddow but Derry are boosted by the return of centre David Laspsley while David McMahon makes his debut at tight-head and Ryan Higgins is back having missed the opener due to holidays. Also back is David Devine and there's also a return for Callum McDonnell, brother of out-half, Alex, who boosts Beddow's option in the back row.

"We have a few not available but we've filled the squad with boys coming back," added the Derry coach, "I said last week we were missing players who hadn't come in yet and most of them will come in now to replace those not available.

"It's nice to have these guys to come in, that's all positive but then to lose the guys we've lost from last week, it hasn't left many selection headaches, we'll just slot them in for the lads who are not there this week.

"Obviously Davy (Graham) is still at doubt after taking a heavy knock to the arm. He hyper extended it and we've been nursing him through this week, so we'll leave making a call on that until Friday at least, just as late as possible because he is important to the squad."

While last week's opening game ended in defeat, Beddow said he was impressed by the character and fighting spirit of his side right, an attitude he believes they'll need to show against on Saturday.

"The fight that we showed for the majority of the game was very encouraging because we were on the back foot up front at times. For the game to be in the balance at the 67 or 68 minute mark when, genuinely, the bounce of a ball could have resulted in us going in under the posts to go 14-13 behind; but that bounce of the ball enabled Ards to get 40m up the pitch.

"That's on us in that they shouldn't have gone that distance but that then resulted in Ards getting their third score and just extending their lead almost out of reach as we were going to struggle to score three times in the last 10 minutes.

"Obviously I’m only coming back into the club and into this group of players but it's nice to hear individuals on the sidelines talking about that fight having been missing for a season or two. People were saying it was great to see the enthusiasm and giving the coaching team and those working in the background a bit of praise, recognising that we are trying to make a difference.

"Listen, Rome wasn't built in a day but I genuinely believe we will get there. There may be a bit more sorrow before we get to the brighter days but I believe they will come."