Full-back Sam Clarke will make his Bournville debut in Saturday’s National Two West match against Hornets at Hutton Moor Road (3pm).
Clarke has arrived at Avery Fields on a loan arrangement with Birmingham Moseley and he comes straight into the staring XV as one five changes of personnel to the side that drew with Loughborough Students last weekend.
Clarke has featured in Moseley’s first team this season and has previous National One experience from his time with Sale FC.
Oscar Fawkes-Underwood switches from full-back to fly-half with Jacob Fewtrell moving from there to partner the returning Will Tanner in the centre in place of the unavailable Sam Grimshaw.
Wing Cam Smith, who was unavailable last week, returns in place of Mikey Ho who took a knock in the closing stages of the Loughborough match.
Reiss Price, who is also on loan from Moseley, starts this week in a swap with Adam Collingwood with Scott Rudge called up at loosehead prop. Clarkson McLeod moves across the front-row to tighthead with Jake Thompson changing places with Rudge on the bench.
Jonjo Fanning and George Jewell, who both started at Luctonians in Bourns’ last away game, return to the squad as replacements this Saturday.
This will be Bourns’ fourth visit to Weston-Super-Mare-based Hornets, a ground where they claimed an away win at the end of the 2023/24 season.
Their first visit in December 2022 ended in a 17-10 defeat and their last trip to Hutton Moor Road in October was a bizarre encounter. Having trailed by 27 points at half-time, Bourns scored 21 unanswered points in the second-half and were unfortunate not to make the trip back up the M5 with four additional points.
Bourns go into Saturday’s matches two places and four points behind Hornets who have beaten the two university teams – Exeter (54-36 away) and Loughborough (51-45 at home) – and lost the other six of their first eight games this season. They have also earned more bonus points – six try and four losing – than any other side in the division.
Bournville | 15 Sam Clarke; 14 Joe Jenkins, 13 Will Tanner, 12 Jacob Fewtrell, 11 Cam Smith; 10 Oscar Fawkes-Underwood, 9 Reiss Price; 1 Scott Rudge, 2 Jamie Harding, 3 Clarkson McLeod, 4 Ben Meakin (C), 5 Harry Dawson, 6 Harry Sigley, 7 Adam Shaw, 8 Callum Nicholls.
Replacements | 16 Jonjo Fanning, 17 Jake Thompson, 18 Kieran Henderson, 19 George Jewell, 20 Adam Collingwood.
