Coventry Rugby team to face Hartpury

Openside flanker Jack Preece makes his first start of the season when Coventry Rugby travel to Hartpury tomorrow (2.30pm kick off).

The former Rotherham and Moseley No.7 is part of a re-organised back row, in which Jack Ram is selected at blindside and Adam Peters wears the No.8 shirt vacated by back injury victim Ben Nutley.

Rugby director Rowland Winter makes one further change to the pack which started last week’s 34-27 win over Bedford, with Charlie Beech replacing the suspended Phil Boulton. His place on the bench goes to Nathanael Titchard-Jones.

Behind the scrum, James Stokes, who has recovered from an ankle injury suffered against Cornish Pirates, gets the nod on the left wing ahead of Junior Bulumakau, while Pete White and Tom Kessell swap starting and bench roles at scrum half.

The former Northampton No.9 is joined among the replacements by fit-again Heath Stevens and Kailus Hutchinson who steps in for hamstring victim Cameron Gray.

Rowland Winter said:

“We showed last week against Bedford that we can compete well, especially during that 20-30 minute-spell in the first half when we were accurate and took our chances.

“Each week we feel we are settling and starting to show more glimpses of our own game. The challenge now is to extend that and show we can perform consistently over longer periods of the game to take control.

“We expect a difficult game at Hartpury, but our preparation this week has been good and we are ready to work hard to take on strong opponents.”

Coventry Rugby:

15. Tony Fenner

14.Rob Knox

13.Andy Bulumakau

12. Sam Tuitupou

11. James Stokes

10. Jake Sharp

9. Pete White

1. James Gibbons

2. Scott Tolmie

3. Charlie Beech

4. Tom Jubb

5. James Voss

6. Jack Ram

7. Jack Preece

8. Adam Peters

Replacements:

16. Phil Nilsen
17. Nathanael Titchard-Jones
18. Luc Jeannot
19. Kailus Hutchinson
20. Ben Adams
21. Tom Kessell
22. Heath Stevens

Advanced tickets for the IPA Greene King Championship clash with London Irish on Saturday September 29 are available from the Butts Park Arena ticket office on 02476 231001.

Details are available at https://www.coventryrugby.co.uk/tickets/