Cinderford second row Angus Hodges leads Gloucester U-20s in a must-win game against Devon in the National U-20 Championships at his home club this Sunday, kick off 2:30. In a side showing a handful of changes from that defeated by Cornwall in the autumn, the University of Gloucestershire student will be hoping his players survive Saturday’s league games as defeat to Devon will see them fail to reach the knock-out stages for the first time. With Devon and Cornwall yet to play coach Ben Woods will have drilled into the side that they have to win and by a comfortable margin to put them in pole position to advance from the pool.
The Gloucestershire U-20 side is:
Mac Dale (Pate’s Grammar School); Ashley Kocerhan (Gordon League RFC), Joe Carolan (Loughborough University), Shay Morgan (Coney Hill RFC), Jack Beck (Longlevens RFC); Oliver Locke (Old Centralians RFC), Ollie Young (Cheltenham RFC & Cardiff University); Luke Panting (Thornbury RFC & University of Gloucestershire), Ben Gompels (Bristol University), Ashley Challenger (Avonmouth Old Boys RFC), Angus Hodges (Cinderford RFC & University of Gloucestershire) (c), Haydn Jennings (Old Patesians RFC), Dan Broady (Coney Hill RFC), Harry Brown (Lydney RFC), Dale Lemon (UWE Bristol).
Replacements: Farrell Gwilliam (Matson RFC), Tom Francis (Clevedon RFC), Richard Webster (Weston-Super-Mare RFC & Hartpury College), Jasper Frost (Old Patesians RFC & University of Gloucestershire), William Hunt (Cirencester RFC), Ewan Bulger (Weston-Super-Mare RFC & Hartpury College), Callum Wyman (Lydney RFC)