THE weather gods appear to finally be in favour of Alun Rossiter’s Swindon Robins ahead of this evening’s SGB Premiership opener Poole (7.30pm).

Tonight marks the fourth time Swindon will attempt to start their Premiership title defence after a pair of meetings at home to Leicester and an away trip to Wolverhampton were postponed.

Unfavourable weather has resulted in almost two thirds of all British speedway fixtures falling victim to the rain this season, but a forecast topping 22 degrees looks set to change that trend as the Robins head for the south coast.

And it’s a threat from down-under that Robins will have to be aware of as Pirates look to dominate the heat-leader ranks through Australian stars Josh Grajczonek and Brady Kurtz.

Rossiter said: “They’ve always had Aussies down there and so have we at the Abbey.

“We’ve had more than most over the years, particularly recently.

“It can work but then it can work against you because the Australians are strongly opinionated sort of people. Sometimes you get clashes with personalities.

“They’ve got a decent rider in Kacper (Woryna), but whoever drops down to reserve for them will be good.

“We’ve had good early signs from Mitchell (Davey) and certainly Zach (Wajtknecht) who has come back from a serious injury.

“Zach has performed well in the British U21 Championships and at Lakeside too, I’m quite comfortable with the pair we have.”

Robins will be at full strength for tonight’s encounter as Nick Morris continues to race on while nursing a minor injury to a nail following a nasty spill in the opening heat of last week’s abandoned meeting at home against Leicester.

Meanwhile Pirates will also track a full one-to-seven with Swindon asset Peter Kildemand leading the Dorset side’s charge.

Kildemand was first introduced to British speedway by Rossiter when signing for Coventry in 2011, and the Robins boss couldn’t speak highly enough of the Dane when asked about his strengths.

He said: “He brings a lot to the Poole team.

“He’s a former Grand Prix rider and has won big events.

“He’s a very good rider and still a Swindon asset, he’s somebody where if we have any issues we can look at him in the future.

“He was somebody I was looking about at. I took him to Coventry and when I came back to Swindon we probably did one of the best switches.

“We swapped him for an American rider with Workington, Peter became our asset and has moved on.

“He’s all-action and hangs off the bike, he’s pretty exciting.”