BOURNVILLE centre Josh Bloomfield will make his first appearance for two months in Saturday’s Regional One Midlands match against Lichfield at Avery Fields (3pm).
Bloomfield has not played since he suffered a knee injury in the season-opener against Nuneaton in September but he has now regained fitness and makes his comeback as one of six changes to the side that beat Dudley Kingswinford two weeks ago.
Joe Jenkins returns to partner Bloomfield in the centre with Jacob Fewtrell moving back to fly-half and Mikey Ho to the right wing.
Adam Collingwood, who has been an ever-present so far this season, will start at scrum-half for Bournville Blues in their Counties Two Midlands West (East) match at Southam.
In the pack, Adam Shaw returns at openside flanker having completed a three-match suspension.
The suspension covered Bournville’s matches against Newent and Dudley Kingswinford and also a scheduled appearance for the Penguins invitation side against Oxford University last week.
Jonjo Fanning also returns at blindside flanker with Kieran Henderson and Ben Rhodes, who came off the bench against DK, both starting this week.
Chris Idehen returns from injury and has been named among the replacements.
Bournville go into Saturday’s game in second place in the table, two points behind leaders Stourbridge.
Lichfield are four places but just four points further back having beaten Bridgnorth 34-33 at Cooke Fields in their last outing.
Saturday’s match will be the first meeting between the clubs in more than six years with Bourns completing a double in Midlands Premier back in the 2018/19 season.
A 49-27 home win early in the season was followed by a 28-22 success at Cooke Fields in February 2019.
Lichfield were relegated at the end of that season but have twice won promotion back to Regional One Midlands since then, most recently last season when they were Regional Two Midlands North champions.
Bournville | 15 Mauro Miller; 14 Mikey Ho, 13 Joe Jenkins, 12 Josh Bloomfield, 11 Nathan Decalmer; 10 Jacob Fewtrell, 9 Reiss Price; 1 Scott Rudge, 2 Ben Rhodes, 3 Jake Thompson, 4 Ben Meakin (C), 5 Kieran Henderson, 6 Jonjo Fanning, 7 Adam Shaw, 8 Callum Nicholls.
Replacements | 16 Clarkson McLeod, 17 Jamie Harding, 18 Chris Idehen.
• Bournville Blues resume their league campaign with a trip to Warwickshire to face Southam on Saturday (2.15pm).
In addition to Adam Collingwood, the Blues also include lock George Jewell who also featured for the first team at Dudley Kingswinford two weeks ago.
Prop Danny Griffin returns from injury as a starter for the Blues with centre Zayd Makorie stepping up from the third XV and new recruit, wing Stephen Terera, making his debut.
Bournville Blues | 15 Niall Demel; 14 Ben Fellows, 13 Eddie Wiggins, 12 Zayd Makorie, 11 Stephen Terera; 10 Alex Warner, 9 Adam Collingwood; 1 Danny Griffin, 2 Ben Fortes-Mayer, 3 Kuba Kijak, 4 George Jewell, 5 Ollie Morris, 6 Bhairaj Rai (C), 7 Piers Skeels-Caldwell, 8 Ben Harper.
Replacements | 16 Conor Thorneycroft, 17 Theo Byrne, 18 Craig Manning.
