Heald predicts a four-way battle

THIS season is a golden opportunity for one of last season’s title contenders to take advantage and win promotion as no team has dropped down from National One into the East.

- BEN JAYCOCK

Both Esher and Blackheath bounced straight back up in the last few seasons and Barnes head coach Jack Heald, whose side were runners-up to Esher last term, believes four teams will battle it out for the title.

He told The Rugby Paper: “Dorking are always a good outfit, they are well coached and similar to us in having a consistent core. Armand (Roux) does a good job down there, they’ve recruited heavily, got Luke Baldwin at nine who’s a good player and their new signing at 10 Tom Hardwick is impressive, so they will be tough.

“I’d expect Tonbridge Juddians to push on, some good players from Worthing have gone there. Bury St Edmunds are always good and have recruited lots of players from abroad. They’ll be our main three contenders; Dorking, Bury, Tonbridge, judging by what other people are putting out on their media sites.

“You need a lot of things to go your way with the health of your squad fundamentally. Our goal is to make top three at Christmas and then see where we’re at. We haven’t set any goals further than that. There’s a big push from the clubs because no National One team has come down. There’ll be a handful with a shout at Christmas, so it should be pretty exciting.”