Head coach Richie Williams has been forced into more changes as his side head to Hartpury for Friday Night Lights in Round 4 of the Championship. Kick off is at 7.45pm.
Here’s Richie:
“It’s something a bit different this week – a quick turnaround from Saturday. It’s the same for Hartpury – they had a good performance and were unlucky not to get the win at Bedford Blues. They picked up a good result against London Scottish at home in Round 2 and went well at Ealing in Round 1 and just came up short there. It’s going to be tough for us – historically, based on last season, we’ve not done well on Friday nights. That’s provided a little bit of fuel – the players are desperate to back up a good performance against Coventry with another one this Friday, so it’s all to play for”
“We lost this one 61-10 last year -lacklustre is probably a generous assessment of our performance that night. We just didn’t turn up and didn’t give a very good account of ourselves. They scored some really good tries but didn’t have to work particularly hard to do that. What we know is that we’re a much better team than we were back then. They’re pretty settled – particularly in their forward pack where they have plenty of experience. Like most teams at this level if you give them time and space on the ball they’ll hurt you. From our perspective it’s really important that we back up last weekend’s performance and that if we create chances we’re good enough to finish them off”.
Ben Brownlie is unavailable for the Blood & Sand this week so Morgan Veness starts at hooker and Toby Knight will make his debut off the bench. Matty Williams returns on the wing. Joe Tarrant makes his first Championship start of this campaign at full back. Pete White makes his first competitive start at scrum half. With Zac Nearchou still out Seb Brownhill and Jake Bridges are the replacement props. Ollie Betteridge, Ruaridh Dawson and Arthur Lennon rotate to the bench. Eli Caven is still not fit to return and Joe Green also misses out this weekend
Cambridge Line Up: 15-Joe Tarrant, 14-Josh Skelcey, 13-Matt Hema, 12-Sam Hanks, 11- Matty Williams, 10-Louis Grimoldby (CC), 9- Pete White, 1- Jake Ellwood, 2- Morgan Veness, 3- Billy Walker, 4- Kayde Sylvester, 5- George Bretag Norris (CC), 6- Iestyn Rees, 7- Jared Cardew, 8- Jack Bartlett, 16-Toby Knight, 17-Seb Brownhill, 18-Jake Bridges, 19-Gareth Baxter, 20-Ben Adams, 21- Ollie Betteridge, 22-Ruaridh Dawson, 23-Arthur Lennon