Cambridge Head Coach Craig Newby has selected his squad for Round 20 of Champ Rugby away at Worcester Warriors, as Captain Ben Adams makes his 150th appearance for the club.
The game takes place at Sixways on Saturday 21st March 2026 – kick off is at 3pm
“The boys are fizzing for this weekend’s trip to Worcester Warriors – they’ve been excited since we go back from our week off. It’s a massive challenge – they were good here, we were good too, and they overpowered us in the last 20 minutes, but, yeah, it’s a proper challenge this Saturday against a proper rugby team. It’s a club with huge history, some of it not as positive as they might like, but they’re back on track and rolling on. Matt Everard is a good friend of mine and he’s doing great things. It’s a very exciting day in prospect. We’re in the lucky position now that we are where we are, we’ve set some clear goals for this block, particularly on the field and how we want to play, and our attitude. There’s going to be some non-negotiables for us – it’ll be a really engaging block – and we’re still chasing those wins. If we can get one, we can get two, and so on, so we’ll see how that goes but it all starts at Sixways this weekend.
“Everyone wants to play free-flowing running rugby but if you’re under pressure it’s actually hard. Teams don’t allow you to do it. In this last block we’ve had horrendous weather across the country and that makes it difficult to play for anyone. As the grounds get harder and the weather gets better, we can start playing a more expansive game – our kicking game has been good throughout. We want to give the boys some freedom to express themselves, and be creative – that comes with some risk, so at times we’re going to make mistakes and then it’s a question of whether the opposition can capitalise . At the end of the day we’ve still got to make decisions based on what we see – we’ve set some clear performance markers – and if that doesn’t come off it won’t be for lack of trying. I think we probably shocked Worcester a bit when they came here – we obviously don’t have that element of surprise this time around. They’ll fully respect what we can do – we’ll have to start well and we can’t wait”.
There are minimal changes to the starting line up this week – Jimmy Thompson starts at scrum half – Ethan Thorn returns from injury and is on the bench, alongside hooker Joe Plunkett who’ll get his first cap. Leicester Tigers trio Tabuna Maka, Monty Loggenberg and Ollie Allen are also amongst the reinforcements.
Ben Adams returns at number eight to captain the side for his 150th appearance in Cambridge colours. The Australian back row joined the Club back in 2015 and made his National League Two debut at Dorking in what turned out to be a promotion season for the Club. “Even when I moved to Bedford and then Coventry I never really left Cambridge. I spent a lot of time here when we didn’t have games elsewhere. Cambridge quickly became my ‘home-away-from-home’ and it’s a part of me now. Whilst it’s a shame not to be celebrating this milestone at Ellgia Fields, Sixways isn’t a bad place to do it! This has been a wonderful part of my rugby career – I’ve found myself gravitating to good people and there are so many good people at this Club”.
Cambridge Squad
15 Ben Currie
14 Joe Green
13 Levi Reweti
12 Jasper Sorrell
11 Eli Caven
10 Otumaka Mausia
9 Jimmy Thompson
1 Jake Ellwood
2 Jack Doorey-Palmer
3 Billy Walker
4 Jake McCay
5 Gareth Baxter
6 Rhys Fulford
7 Dan Eckersley
8 Ben Adams (C)
Reinforcements
16 Joe Plunkett 17 Tabuna Maka 18 Paul Wulf-Masoe 19 Monty Loggenberg 20 Chris Mills 21 Ollie Allen 22 Ethan Thorne 23 Eparama Rokodrava