Horsham RFC find our their opponents for 2019/20 season

The club badges of the sides Horsham will face next season

There will be two Sussex derbies following Haywards Heath’s promotion as champions from London 2 South East, to join Chichester in the league, which will provide additional local interest.

Horsham have never faced half of the sides before in a league fixture.

SEE ALSO Off! Barns Green Half Marathon and 10k organisers make early call on big races | Hockey clubs told: Down sticks until end of June at earliest | Sussex cricket won't return before July - and rest of season is under close review | What were the sporting headlines in Sussex five years ago?The most mouth-watering new opposition is London Welsh, a side famous for fielding British Lions and Welsh International players in the 1960’s and 1970’s before they struggled with the advent of professional rugby.

But London Welsh are bouncing back and will provide formidable opposition having been promoted as champions of London 2 North West and then moved sideways into London 1 South for geographical reasons to even up the numbers in the league.

Two other sides the Green and Whites will be facing for the first time in league action with powerful reputations are Guildford and London Irish Wild Geese, due to them always having been in higher leagues, and will bring extra anticipation particularly in the case of the Surrey club bearing in mind the two towns are only 20 miles apart.

With both Guildford and London Irish Wild Geese having been relegated from the London & SE Premier League they will be looking to quickly bounce back to the higher echelons of the game.

Horsham have met Hammersmith & Fulham in the National Cup but never before in league action, whilst their only encounter with Farnham was in the play-off in April 2019 to secure promotion to London 1 South which the Green and Whites won 44-17 on a memorable day. Farnham made no mistake the following year being promoted from London 2 South West as champions and are joined by Battersea Ironsides as runners up in another first league encounter for Horsham.

The remaining sides in the league are all familiar foes namely Cobham, KCS Old Boys, London Cornish, Camberley and Medway with the latter two clubs sure to be amongst the favourites for promotion again.