Nottingham Rugby Head Coach Neil Fowkes has named the 22-man-squad that will make the trip to Butts Park on Saturday when the Green and Whites face Coventry in the third round of the Championship Cup.

The Green and Whites currently sit at the bottom of Pool 1 having lost both of their opening matches against Yorkshire Carnegie and Doncaster Knights, and Neil Fowkes is expecting another tough test tomorrow.

Nottingham and Coventry haven’t faced each other in eight years, with last encounter ending in a 37-20 win at Meadow Lane.

Prior to then, Nottingham and Coventry enjoyed a long-standing local rivalry, with the first recorded match between the two sides taking place in 1892.

Neil Fowkes is looking forward to the prospect of the resurgence of the rivalry between the two sides, particularly when considering the teams will meet three times between now and Christmas.

Speaking ahead of the game, Fowkes said: “It’s fantastic to be playing Coventry again after all this time. We’ve had some memorable matches over the years and I’m sure fans from both teams are excited about battling against one another once more.

“We were disappointed we didn’t take our chances against Doncaster and are looking forward to getting back out on the park this week. The Championship Cup has given us an opportunity to play all of our squad as well as keep our game improving and moving forward.”

Full team to play Coventry:

15. Callum Sirker (loan, Wasps)
14. Harry Graham
13. Joe Cobden
12. Luke Peters
11. Alex Goble
10. Darryl Veenendaal
9. Murray McConnell (C)
1. Jamie Jack
2. Jake Farnworth
3. Oisin Heffernan
4. Tim Cardall (loan, Wasps)
5. Seb Cecil
6. Josh Fenner (loan, Wasps)
7. Will Owen
8. George Cox

Replacements:

16. JJ Broberg
17. James Penman
18. Mike Daniels
19. Llewelyn Jones
20. Devante Onojaife (loan, Saints)
21. Alex Crocker
22. David Williams

Nottingham Rugby’s next home game is against Coventry on Friday 30 November. Advance tickets can be purchased via the club’s ticketing website here.