BLUES: Starting line-up for London Welsh trip announced
Just a week on from their first defeat of the season, Bedford Blues have brushed themselves down and are all set for the relatively short journey to London Welsh tomorrow afternoon.
Old Deer Park has been a happy hunting ground for the Blues in recent years having picked up five wins in the last five visits.
Bedford will be hoping to get back on track after last weekends loss to the league leaders at Goldington Road, but they know that the Exiles will be a tough nut to crack.
Brendan Burke is the latest addition to Bedford's injury list after he suffered a knee injury against Bristol and he could be out for six weeks.
Gregor Gillanders is facing a month out with a stress fracture while Alex Brown misses out for another week. Mike Guess had a successful operation on his ankle injury although no date has been set for his comeback, but Harry Spencer has a touch of flu.
Nick Walshe should be running soon, but Marco Cecere is still sidelined with a shoulder problem and Mike Howard is still out with a back problem.
Director of rugby Mike Rayer makes just a couple of changes for this weekend's fixture.
The injury to Brendan Burke means that Liam Roberts gets the call at outside centre and Luke Fielden gets the nod on the wing in place of Ian Davey. There is also a return to the 22 man squad for flanker Brett Daynes.
Blues forwards coach Martin Hynes said: "Ian Davey has been playing really well, but we feel that Luke deserves a run out following all his hard work in pre-season and last weekend he showed glimpses of what he's all about.
"Brett has also trained really well and if he gets his opportunity then he can do the business.
"Although it is one of our closest games it always seems to take an age to get to Old Deer Park and it is a tough place to play.
"We know that they have a competitive side who are very able and they are playing some very good, expansive rugby at the moment.
"Although they have lost two games this season, we know that they ran Bristol extremely close and we are led to believe that they were quite unfortunate against Nottingham.
"We'll be taking nothing for granted given previous results and I'm sure it's going to be a cracker of a game."
Starting line-up:
15. James Pritchard
14. Ollie Dodge
13. Liam Roberts
12. Ian Vass
11. Luke Fielden
10. Myles Dorrian
9. Will Chudley
8. Chris Goodman
7. Ben Lewitt
6. Sacha Harding
5. Alex Rae
4. Paul Tupai
3. Phil Boulton
2. Dan Richmond (c)
1. Sam Walsh
Replacements: 16. Chris Locke 17. Mark Lilley 18. John Harlock 19. Brett Daynes 20. Darryl Veenendaal 21. Brad Davies 22. Ian Davey.
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Weather for Biggleswade
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 2 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North west
