After losing their opening British & Irish Cup match 11-18 to Bristol last week, Neath travel to Nottingham on Sunday (KO 3pm) in determined mood as they seek their first win in the competition.
Neath last played Nottingham in 1990 when the Midlands club operated out of their Beeston home. But things have changed big-time in English rugby and Nottingham, now a fully-professional outfit, play at Meadow Lane, the historic ground of Notts County AFC.
The Welsh All Blacks will be looking to improve on last week’s result and know that they face a tough task as Nottingham lie third in the English Championship just one place behind last week’s victors Bristol.
Neath make just two changes with top try-scorer Kristian Philips returning on the left wing in place of Kevin Morgan and John Bowd returning to the back-row which will allow the consistent Euros Evans to occupy his customary second row position.
The replacements’ bench will feature a 5-2 split of forwards and backs as Neath are minus the services of the injured quintet of Kevin Morgan, Luke Ford, Nathan Brew, David Evans and Gareth McCarthy.
Head Coach Patrick Horgan said:“Like last week, we have a very tough challenge ahead of us in Nottingham but it is a challenge we are looking forward to as it pitches us against another fully-professional, English club.
“Nottingham are just behind Bristol in the table and we know that they have strong links with Leicester’s Academy so much so that several of their players helped Leicester beat South Africa recently.
“We will be aiming to exert more sustained pressure on Nottingham because last week we were mostly on the back foot. Defensively, we took some consolation from the Bristol game as the team showed great resolution. In fact, the referee from Ireland said he was impressed by our disciplined defence and we kept it going to the end.
“Really though we need to play it on our terms and take the game to the opposition and the return of Kristian and John will certainly help in that direction. We are definitely not out of the competition as all the games in our group were settled by 7 points or less, losing bonus points abounded and Nottingham edged it 5-nil at Heriot’s.”
Neath v Nottingham (Away)
G.King; K.James, S.Thomas, W.Mitchell, K.Phillips; A.Thomas (captain), K.Farrell; N.Downs, G.Price, M.Jones; E.Evans, N.Edwards; L.Evans, J.Bowd, G.Gravell
Replacements: A.Jenkins, T.James, A.James, J.Reeves, P.Sidoli, H.Pugh, A.Whitney
