Chris Idehen will make his comeback from a serious Achilles tendon injury in Bournville’s friendly against Sheffield Tigers at Avery Fields on Saturday (3pm).
The influential back-row forward and former first team captain has been sidelined since he suffered the injury in the National Two West victory over Loughborough Students in mid-October.
He has been training fully recently and will make a welcome return to action in the final warm-up match before Bourns open their Regional One Midlands campaign with a home match against Nuneaton on September 6.
Fly-half Jacob Fewtrell, who missed last week’s victory over Silhillians, has recovered from a hamstring injury and will renew his partnership with Reiss Price, who came off the bench last week.
Adam Collingwood, who started at scrum-half against Silhillians, starts on the wing – where he finished last week – with Joe Jenkins moving from centre to wing and Josh Bloomfield joining Sam Grimshaw in the centre.
Jonjo Fanning moves from the back-row to hooker with Danny Griffin, who impressed off the bench last week, starting along with lock Harry Dawson and blindside flanker Kieran Henderson.
There were three new names on the bench in Ollie Morris, Myles Hibbs and Jamie Maynard.
Lock Morris, a recent recruit from Harborne, and back-row forward Hibbs, who has arrived at Avery Fields from Kenilworth, both played for the Blues in their narrow defeat at Claverdon last week. Maynard is the son of Bourns’ Managing Director Phil and can play either in the back-row or centre.
Bournville Blues were also scheduled to be in action on Saturday but their scheduled home friendly against Woodrush has been cancelled as the visitors are struggling to raise a team.
Bournville | 15 Mikey Ho; 14 Adam Collingwood, 13 Josh Bloomfield, 12 Sam Grimshaw, 11 Joe Jenkins; 10 Jacob Fewtrell, 9 Reiss Price; 1 Danny Griffin, 2 Jonjo Fanning, 3 Jake Thompson; 4 Ben Meakin (C), 5 Harry Dawson, 6 Kieran Henderson, 7 Adam Shaw, 8 Chris Idehen.
Replacements | 16 Conor Thorneycroft, 17 Scott Rudge, 18 Clarkson McLeod, 19 George Jewell, 20 Ollie Morris, 21 Myles Hibbs, 22 George Ayliffe, 23 Jamie Maynard, 24 Ben Fellows.
