Yorkshire Carnegie v Coventry Rugby - Championship round 19 team news

[caption id="attachment_8897" align="alignnone" width="3330"] Centre Heath Stevens returns for Cov at Carnegie on Sunday.[/caption]

Heath Stevens returns to Coventry’s starting line-up when they face Yorkshire Carnegie at Headingley on Sunday (3pm kick off).

The powerful centre partners new signing Will Owen, who made his debut last week, in a new midfield combination.

This means Rob Knox moves to the right wing where he operates in a back three that also features Max Trimble and David Halaifonua.

Tom Kessell and Will Maisey retain the starting half-back shirts, however Cov’s coaching group make two changes in the back row.

This means Jack Ram and Ben Nutley swap bench and starting roles at openside flanker, while Australia sevens cap Ben Adams wears the No.8 shirt alongside blindside Adam Peters.

A same-again front five sees James Voss join George Oram in the second row behind Gerard Ellis, Scott Tolmie and skipper Phil Boulton.

Carnegie’s second highest appearance maker, Phil Nilsen, makes a nostalgic return to his former club on Cov’s bench where he is joined by fellow front-rowers James Gibbons and Donald Brighouse.

Lock forward Scott Russell also gets another chance to impress from among the replacements while scrum half Pete White and Andy Bulumakau provide backs cover in the absence of the injured Sam Tuitupou.

Coventry Rugby:

1. Gerard Ellis

2. Scott Tolmie

3. Phil Boulton ©

4. James Voss

5. George Oram

6. Adam Peters

7. Jack Ram

8. Ben Adams

9. Tom Kessell

10. Will Maisey

11. Max Trimble

12. Will Owen

13. Heath Stevens

14. Rob Knox

15. David Halaifonua

Replacements:

16. Phil Nilsen

17. James Gibbons

18. Donald Brighouse

19. Scott Russell

20. Ben Nutley

21. Pete White

22. Andy Bulumakau

 Director of rugby Rowland Winter said:

“Carnegie are one of the most in-form sides in the Championship currently, so we have to go up there, show how much it means to wear the Cov badge and get some retribution for our poor performance last week.

“They are a set-piece dominated side who like to play the percentages and look for territory. If we can get our free-flowing game going but then also execute the chances we create we’ll be in a good spot.

“When we played them at home in both the league and the cup we managed to make plenty of scoring opportunities, so we’re hoping for better weather than the last time we went up there when no-one was able to play any rugby.”