London Welsh head coach Lyn Jones keeps faith with 11 of the starting line up that ran in six tries in their 38-0 over Oxford University in mid-week, for Saturday’s visit of Aberavon to Old Deer Park in the British & Irish Cup (2:30pm).
In addition, there are only three survivors from the Welsh side which last weekend overturned a 10-6 half-time deficit at Castle Park against Doncaster Knight to win the second half 15-0 – fly half Alex Davies, second row Adam Brown and number eight Ed Jackson.
The Exiles opened their B&I Cup campaign with a bonus point win over London Scottish, but then went down to Bedford Blues to the last play of the game at Sunbury. However, the Exiles still sit top of Pool 4, albeit only by points difference from Esher.
Saturday’s clash at Old Deer Park will be Aberavon’s first outing in this season’s B&I Cup, with the Welsh Premiership leaders drawn in Pool 3 alongside Leinster, Bedford and Scottish.
Welsh and Aberavon do, however, have previous B&I Cup history. The two sides were pooled together in 2009/10 with the Exiles winning 36-7 at the Talbot Athletic Ground. Paul Sampson and Tom Brown both scored two tries a piece, while Simon Whatling completed the try scoring. On Saturday at Old Deer Park, Paul Mackey and Matt Corker will be Welsh’s only survivors from that meeting on November 27, 2009.
The two sides also faced each other in a friendly on August 2, 2008, at the Talbot Athletic Ground. The Exiles coming out on top that day 48-17 with tries coming from Joe Ajuwa (2), Ed Lewis-Pratt, Aaron Hopkins, Mark Odejobi, Alex Walker and Darryl Ball, with Lewis-Pratt adding 13 points with the boot.
London Welsh: 15. James Lewis, 14. Liam Gibson, 13. Paul Mackey, 12. Seb Jewell, 11. Ashley Smith, 10. Alex Davies, 9. Ben Stevenson, 1. Guillermo Roan, 2. Vili Ma’asi*, 3. James Tideswell, 4. Adam Brown, 5. Matt Corker, 6. Gary Johnson ©, 7. Michael Hills, 8. Ed Jackson.
Replacements: 16. George Thomas, 17. Billy Moss, 18. Martin Purdy, 19. Michael Denbee, 20. Jack Moates, 21. Will Hurrell, 22. Edd Thrower.
* Denotes full international
