Nottingham Rugby host Ealing Trailfinders this Sunday in the opening match of the 2020/21 RFU Championship season and Coach Neil Fowkes has named his fifteen to take the field at Lady Bay as the Green and Whites look to get their new campaign off to a winning start.
Ten debutants in all, a much-changed Nottingham side from the last match they played in the league against Cornish Pirates on March 1st 2020, with many new faces signed over the course of the last year, each chomping at the bit to get started in rugby’s long anticipated second tier return.
The two teams last met in January of last, Ealing coming away from the Bay with an 18-10 win. Coach Fowkes expects a tough match ahead and said of his opponents “Ealing have played a good amount of pre-season games and we haven’t played any. They’ve got a settled team that plays week in week and out and we’ve got ten debutants.”
But confident he can get his side playing from the get go, Fowkes who’s seen his new army of players train well in recent days, explained “One thing you can always rely on from us is we’ll be tough, well organised and competitive, and that will be no different on the weekend. What better way to kick off the season than against the team that is hoping to be in the promotion push at the end.”
“We’ve got nothing to lose. We will go out there and play our game, throw the ball around and put the pressure on Ealing to perform.”
The match will be streamed live on Sunday with a 1pm kick off. For more details on the PPV event you can go to the nottinghamrugby.co.uk website where you can also download the matchday programme of the game.
Starting XV: 15 Jack Stapley, 14 Joe Carpenter, 13 Will Millett, 12 Joe Bedlow, 11 Joe Browning, 10 Tom Curtis, 9 Alex Dolly, 1 Toby Williams, 2 Jake Farnworth, 3 Karl Garside, 4 Jac Price, 5 Luke Frost, 6 Kieran Curran, 7 Carl Kirwan, 8 Jordan Coghlan.
Replacements: 16 Aniseko Sio, 17 Shaun Evans, 18 Harri O’Connor, 19 Jack Ramshaw, 20 Willie Ryan, 21 Josh Poullet, 22 Michael Stronge, 23 Charlie Thacker.
*Main image @nottinghamrugby Lady Bay will be host to five home matches this season.
