Nicholl wantsDivision 2A title

The Judges Road men start their AIL campaign with a home game against Rainey Old Boys this Saturday (KO 2.30pm).

Nicholl feels after two years of pushing for a top four finish, this year the championship has to be their target and he knows that Judges Road needs to be a fortress this campaign if they harbour any thoughts of claiming the title.

“We have set our stall pretty high this year, we are looking to win the league this season,” he insisted.

“We make no bones about it and we know it’s going to be very, very difficult, but that’s our goal.

“Last year we hoped to get into the top four and we sneaked in their at the last game of the season, so this season our target is to win the league and try to get promoted to AIL Division 1B.”

Nicholl has added the likes of Stephen Dickey, Neil Burns and Chris Barber and he hopes this campaign young players like Ross Harkin, Ryan Spratt and Ross Scott will step up if they are called upon.

Once again the Derry coach will not be separating the Firsts and Seconds during training sessions and he will be selecting from a big squad of players, who he feels he will need during what will be another tough campaign.

“We have brought in Stephen Dickey, he’s a ground-hog and he’s starting to slot into the back row pretty well, Neil Burns has come in and Chris Barber hasn’t played any rugby yet, so there’s a few guys to come in yet, but the new boys have all settled in nicely,” he added.

“I kept saying it last year, that we weren’t going to win anything with a side, it’s all about the squad. We are still trying to make the squad bigger and trying to develop a few players.

“Like last year I don’t think or talk about a Firsts or a Seconds teams, it’s Firsts squad of about 36 or 37 players.

“In the AIL last year we used 34 different players in just 15 games and I expect much the same this year.”

Nicholl admits he and his players were disappointed that last week’s game against Armagh was postponed and because of that everyone at Judges Road is champing at the bit for this weekend’s clash against Rainey.

“The boys are really looking forward to Saturday’s game, in fact they can’t wait for the Rainey game.

“We didn’t get off to a good start in the AIL last year at home, so we are very keen to get the ball rolling this year.”

Only a few weeks ago Derry secured an impressive 48-8 victory over this Saturday’s opponents and a similar outcome this weekend would do nicely for Nicholl, but he’s expecting a much tougher encounter.

“You never get two games the same, so we are expecting a really, really hard physical game and we are expecting Rainey to come back really strongly.

“All the boys were bitterly disappointed that the Armagh game was called off, they were all very keen to play, it’s not always about getting points and wins, it’s more important to get more game time ahead of the AIL season, so two weeks is a long time without rugby.”