Cornwall have picked an exciting side to face Gloucestershire in this Saturday’s opening County Championship fixture at Redruth kick-off 3 pm.
Apart from skipper Ben Hilton our current player of the year, there are two former TASC player of the year recipients in the team, centre Ryan Westren and No.8 Sam Hocking.
In addition there is Bryn Jenkins (Cambridge) who has won our U.20 award in the past as has indeed Westren.
There will be added incentive too for prop Darren Jacques who’s wife presented him with a daughter on May Day. A win against old foes Gloucestershire would cap a fine week for the Redruth forward.
The back line shows three changes from the side that recently defeated Devon in the Tamar Cup at Launceston. In at outside centre comes Westren who has been in sparkling form at London Scottish since signing from the Cornish Pirates. On the wing comes Steve Johns from Plymouth Albion, whilst at scrum-half fit again Greg Goodfellow (Redruth) starts and partners Lewis Webb (Cornish All Blacks) at fly-half. Webb is going travelling so this will be one of his last games in Cornwall for a while.
In the pack Jenkins partners skipper Ben Hilton in the second row, whilst at No.8 Hocking (Plymouth Albion) comes in for Tom Duncan (Redruth) who drops to the bench.
The bench also sees Damien Cook (Redruth) return as second row cover and Dave Pascoe who last Saturday skippered the Royal Navy in their defeat against the Army in the Babcock Trophy at Twickenham as one of just two back replacements the other being Jake Murphy (Cornish All Blacks).
There is a late change Ryan Westren has been forced to pull-out due to a groin injury, Steve Johns switches from the wing to centre, Tom Notman (Redruth) comes in on the wing.
Cornwall: B Rule (Redruth), R Bright (Cornish All Blacks), L Paterson (Cornish All Blacks), S Johns (Plymouth Albion), T Notman (Redruth), L Webb (Cornish All Blacks), G Goodfellow (Redruth); D Jacques (Redruth), J Salter (Cornish All Blacks), C Williams (Redruth), B Hilton (Cornish All Blacks, Capt), B Jenkins (Cambridge), M Rawlings (Cornish All Blacks), T Rawlings (Cornish All Blacks), S Hocking (Plymouth Albion)
Replacements: D Pascoe (Penryn & Royal Navy), J Murphy (Cornish All Blacks), T Duncan (Redruth), R Brown (Redruth), P Joyce (Redruth), D Cook (Redruth), C Fuca (Redruth)
