EXCITING prospect Chester Owen makes his first Coventry Rugby start in tomorrow’s pivotal Championship clash with Bedford Blues (Butts Park Arena, 3pm kick off), writes Paul Smith.
The 20-year-old back-rower has impressed from the bench in recent weeks and he now gets the opportunity to pack down at no.8 as a result of the head injury Tiki Nayalo suffered during the first half of Cov’s win at Nottingham last weekend.
Owen, who scored twice during Cov’s 52-26 bonus point success at Lady Bay, is joined in the back row for this second-versus-fourth clash by Matt Kvesic and Tom Ball.
In front of them head coach Alex Rae names an unchanged second row pairing for the eighth consecutive match while club captain Jordon Poole returns to the middle of Cov’s front row with Suva Ma’asi switching to the bench.
In a third change to the starting line-up, Tobi Wilson reverts to full back with Ryan Hutler selected on the right wing and Jimmy Martin on the left.
Retirement-bound Will Chudley again partners Pat Pellegrini at half-back while the in-form Tom Hitchcock and Will Wand start in midfield.
Scrum-half Toby Venner and the flexible Evan Mitchell are back replacements while the six forwards who join them on the bench include back-rower Harry Stone who is in line to make his blue-and-white league debut.
Tongan international fly half Pellegrini scored 19 points as Cov won an entertaining game at Goldington Road 19-34 on New Year’s Day and Rae is expecting his former club to be part of a similarly enjoyable spectacle tomorrow.
Rae said: “Bedford are a good team who play an attacking brand of rugby and like to score tries,” he said. “We like to play the same way so it should make for a really good game of rugby.
“We’re on a nice winning run of six games at the moment, playing some good stuff and putting some big scores on the board.
“But we know that every week is a challenge and if we slip off those standards we’ll quickly get burned.”
Coventry’s line-up
Coventry Rugby: Wilson; Hutler, Wand, Hitchcock, Martin; Pellegrini, Chudley; Trinder, Poole, Nicol; Tyas, Nkwocha; Ball, Kvesic, Owen.
Replacements: Ma’asi, Nairau, Salt, Anstey, Ryan, Venner, Mitchell, Stone.
