SUMMER signing Liam Richman has recovered from a shoulder injury to make his Coventry Rugby debut in the club’s Championship opener against London Scottish, writes Paul Smith.
The Australian fly half joined Cov from Edinburgh-based Heriot’s at the end of last season but has not featured in his new club’s pre-season wins over Birmingham Moseley and Chinnor due to injury.
The 26-year-old also takes ownership of the kicking tee in a backline which features five of Cov’s new recruits alongside prolific wingers Jimmy Martin and Ryan Hutler who both finished high in the scoring charts last year.
By contrast, all eight of Coventry’s starting forwards played prominent roles last term and this cohesion helped them perform impressively as a unit during the first half of last Friday’s pipe-opener against league rivals Chinnor.
Powerful ball-carrying, aggressive scrummaging and dynamic lineout work were very much to the fore as the pack registered all five of Cov’s first-half tries against the newly-promoted Oxfordshire outfit.
It is therefore no surprise to see head coach Alex Rae retain the same starting front eight for what promises to be a testing encounter with the Richmond Athletic Ground-based Exiles.
In the absence of Jordon Poole, Cov hand the captain’s armband to prop Toby Trinder while Suva Ma’asi starts at hooker with on-loan Bath front-rower Jasper Spandler providing bench support.
James Tyas’ speedy return to fitness following a serious knee injury earns him a second outing against a former club in eight days – and also the unusual landmark of appearing from the bench for Coventry for the first time after previously making 61 starts.
Statisticians will also note that three players – scrum-half Josh Barton plus replacements Aaron Hinckley and Matt Johnson – begin second spells at the club on the same day after collectively making 41 Cov appearances during previous stints at the Butts Park Arena.
With flanker Hinckley wearing the no.23 shirt, Rae and his coaching team have opted for a six-two split between forwards and backs among the replacements where prop Jevaughn Warren is set to join Spandler and Richman in making a Coventry league debut.
Looking ahead to his team’s competitive opener at a venue where they edged home by two points in January courtesy of Scottish’s failed long-distance penalty attempt in the closing seconds, Rae acknowledged his team will need to be at their best to win.
Rae said: “London Scottish have been together for a couple of years and they’ve added some good players this summer like Jonah Holmes who is an international.
“They’ve looked really good in pre-season so we’re expecting a really difficult game at a ground where we went a long time without winning before last year.”
Coventry Rugby’s line-up vs London Scottish
Coventry: Steff Davies; Ryan Hutler, Oli Morris, Daf-Rhys Tiueti, Jimmy Martin; Liam Richman, Josh Barton; Toby Trinder ©, Suva Ma’asi, Vilikesa Nairau; Rhys Anstey, Obinna Nkwocha; Tom Ball, Matt Kvesic, Senitki Nayalo.
Replacements: Jasper Spandler, Jevaughn Warren, Matt Johnson, James Tyas, Daniel Okeke, Will Lane, David Opoku, Aaron Hinckley
Coventry make the trip to London Scottish’s Richmond Athletic Ground on Friday, September 20 with kick-off at 7.45pm.
