Centre Henry Harper will make his second appearance of the season for Regional One Midlands champions Bournville in Saturday’s final home match of the season against Newport at Avery Fields (3pm).
Harper’s availability is limited by his commitments at Birmingham University but is available to Bourns during the holiday periods and he comes into a re-jigged back division in place of Joe Jenkins who is unavailable this weekend.
Harper’s previous appearance this season came during the Christmas holiday when he impressed in the victory at Stourbridge and he will renew his centre pairing with Sam Grimshaw against Newport.
Mikey Ho switches from the centre to the left wing to accommodate Harper with 17-year-old Oscar Fawkes-Underwood starting at full-back in the absence of Jenkins.
There are three changes of personnel in the pack with Clarkson McLeod starting at loosehead prop in place of the unavailable Scott Rudge and Jamie Harding, who came off the bench at Banbury last week, named as hooker in a swap with Ben Rhodes.
Harry Dawson returns as second row partner for captain Ben Meakin which allows Kieran Henderson to revert to the blindside flank.
Jonjo Fanning, who started at blindside at Banbury, has been named as replacement this week covering both the front row.
Openside flanker Adam Shaw returns to the matchday squad as a replacement having recovered from the dislocated shoulder he suffered in the defeat at Newent two months ago. Shaw’s availability is an unexpected bonus as it was initially feared that the injury would rule him out for the remainder of the season.
Bourns go into Saturday’s match looking to complete the season unbeaten at home with a perfect record of ten from ten so far.
They face a Newport side still smarting from a home defeat by Bridgnorth last week which denied them the opportunity to overhaul Bourns at the top of the table as it gave them an unassailable 11 points lead with two rounds of matches to play.
Bourns won 21-12 in the mud at Forton Road in December in the season a win which, with hindsight, was crucial in the title race as they went into that match level on points with Newport.
Bournville | 15 Oscar Fawkes-Underwood; 14 Mauro Miller, 13 Henry Harper, 12 Sam Grimshaw, 11 Mikey Ho; 10 Jacob Fewtrell, 9 Reiss Price; 1 Clarkson McLeod, 2 Jamie Harding, 3 Jake Thompson, 4 Ben Meakin (C), 5 Harry Dawson, 6 Kieran Henderson, 7 Chris Idehen, 8 Callum Nicholls.
Replacements | 16 Ben Rhodes, 17 Jonjo Fanning, 18 Adam Shaw.
*Bournville Blues face a tough away assignment at Counties Two Midlands West (East) leaders Barkers’ Butts.
Adam Collingwood, who started on the wing for the first XV at Banbury last week, is at scrum-half for the Blues on Saturday.
Collingwood brings experience to a largely untried back division but the pack looks more settled with Poland Under-20s international Kuba Kijak at tighthead and Ollie Morris and George Jewell in the second row.
Bournville Blues | 15 Stephen Terera; 14 Carter Wells, 13 Liam Malin, 12 Jamie Maynard, 11 Craig Manning; 10 Alex Iles, 9 Adam Collingwood; 1 Sean Kimberley, 2 Ben Harper, 3 Kuba Kijak, 4 Ollie Morris, 5 George Jewell, 6 Myles Hibbs (C), 7 Piers Skeels-Caldwell, 8 Theo Byrne.
Replacements | 16 Lionel Muskwe, 17 Dennis Suter.
