Cambridge director of rugby Richie Williams expecting ‘really difficult game’ during RFU Championship opener against Chinnor

Cambridge’s director of rugby Richie Williams has warned against the idea of underestimating this weekend’s season-opening opponents.

Chinnor will travel to Volac Park on Saturday (21 Saturday) having been crowned champions of National League 1 last term.

And that feeling of being a newly-promoted side is one that Cambridge know well, having themselves been elevated to the RFU Championship 12 months ago.

Williams’ side made their entrance into the second tier of English rugby away at Ampthill and they almost caused an upset before eventually slipping to a 28-26 defeat.

“It’s going to be a really difficult game,” said Williams.

“I think most people when they saw the fixtures probably welcomed us playing a newly-promoted team, but from our experiences last season we played away on the first day and could and probably should have won.

“There will be no pressure on Chinnor or no expectation for them to come to us and win the game.

“We’re pretty guarded and we know how competitive they will be. They won National 1 pretty convincingly last season, so they’re a very strong team.

“For us it’s really important that we can transfer some of what we’ve done in pre-season and put that into a good 80-minute performance in our first league game at home.”

Cambridge went into that fixture at Ampthill with a number of injury issues.

However, this time around Williams has the luxury of being able to select from a ‘fully fit squad’.

He added: “At the moment we’re selecting from a fully fit squad, which we weren’t able to do this time last season.

“When you’ve got a smaller squad than most teams at this level, the more availability you can have of your better players, the easier things are.

“I’m delighted that we’re able to select from a fully fit squad.”

When Oxfordshire-based Chinnor last travelled to Cambridge for a league encounter in November 2022, it was the home side that triumphed by a narrow 31-27 margin.

And Cambridge also won the reverse fixture on their way to being crowned champions, coming out on top 19-17 in another closely-fought encounter.