WESTREN RETURNS TO FACE NORTH MIDLANDS
By Bill Hooper TASC Press Officer, at Recreation Ground Camborne
London Scottish centre Ryan Westren has recovered from a groin injury to line up for Cornwall in the final pool match in this season’s Bill Beaumont Cup Southern Section against North Midlands at Camborne kick-off 3 p.m.
Westren’s selection sees Steve Johns (Plymouth Albion) revert back to the wing in place of Rhodri McAtee (Cornish Pirates) who is unavailable.
Jake Murphy (Cornish All Blacks) ever present in the squad this campaign comes in at fly-half for unavailable club-mate Lewis Webb.
The other change to the starting XV is at scrum-half where Dave Pascoe (Royal Navy) starts with Greg Goodfellow (Redruth) reverting to the bench.
The replacements bench is made up of players from the Redruth club with centre Sam Parson being added as backs cover.
Cornwall coach Dave “Benji” Thomas was pleased with the attitude and commitment of the squad. He said. “Training went really well tonight, but it’s been really good all the way through. This has been an exceptional bunch of players who have really brought in to what we want to achieve”.
Benji confirmed that despite not training due the knock he received on Saturday that full back Brett Rule should be fit after treatment.
Cornwall (Cornish All Blacks unless otherwise): B Rule (Redruth), R Bright, R Westren (London Scottish), L Paterson, S Johns (Plymouth Albion), J Murphy, D Pascoe (Penryn & Royal Navy); D Jacques (Redruth), J Salter, C Williams (Redruth), B Hilton (Capt), B Jenkins (Cambridge), M Rawlings, T Rawlings, S Hocking (Plymouth Albion).
Replacements: R Brown (Redruth), P Joyce (Redruth), C Fuca (Redruth), T Duncan (Redruth), G Goodfellow (Redruth), S Parsons (Redruth), T Notman (Redruth) .
North Midlands have included 12 newcomers in their squad for their final County Championship Bill Beaumont Cup Division One South group match against Cornwall at Camborne on Saturday May 19 (3pm), writes Paul Bolton.
Injuries and unavailability have forced North Midlands to field a much-changed sideto that which beat Gloucestershire 47-37 at Stourbridge last weekend.
Dudley Kingswinford full-back Matt Farrington, Nottingham wing Rhys Crane, Camp Hill fly-half Jimmy Oliver, Moseley scrum-half Dave Brazier, Bournville lock Rob Griffin and Luctonians flanker Daniel Smith are the debutants in the starting XV.
Farrington and Oliver have impressed playing in the RLF North Midlands Championship this season and Brazier for North Midlands Under-20s and Midlands Under-20s.
The replacements’ bench includes six newcomers with Birmingham Civil Service hooker Craig Lea the only one who has played senior county rugby before.
North Midlands will secure their place in the top flight if they beat Cornwall but they could lose and still stay up if Gloucestershire fail to beat Hertfordshire in the other group match.
North Midlands v Cornwall 15 Matt Farrington (Dudley Kingswinford); 14 Rhys Crane (Nottingham), 13 Will Richards (Luctonians), 12 Fred Pierrepont (Birmingham & Solihull), 11 Cameron Mitchell (Plymouth Albion); 10 Jimmy Oliver (Camp Hill), 9 Dave Brazier (Moseley); 1 Craig Voisey (Moseley), 2 Dan Osleton (Rugby Lions), 3 Stef Thorpe (Dudley Kingswinford), 4 Ed Parry (Dudley Kingswinford – captain), 5 Rob Griffin (Bournville), 6 Daniel Smith (Luctonians), 7 Nathan Roy-Smith (Luctonians), 8 Rob Hill (Camp Hill).
Replacements: Craig Lea (Birmingham Civil Service), Ignas Darkintis (Birmingham & Solihull), Tim Breakwell (Old Halesonians), Mitch Lee (Old Saltleians), Tommi Hughes (Malvern), Steve Leach (Camp Hill), Ieuan Mustow (Malvern).
