Dodd to captain Cavaliers in Shield opener

Tom Dodd will captain Cavaliers in their opening Premiership Rugby Shield match of the season against Sale Jets at Sixways this evening (kick-off 7.30pm).

The former Scotland number eight missed the first two months of the season because of a knee injury but he made a successful return to action for Warriors in their European Challenge Cup victory over Enisei-STM in Russia last week.

Dodd will lead a Cavaliers squad that includes 15 players who played against Enisei with full-back Scott van Breda and centre Luke Scully the only two starters against Sale Jets who did not feature in Russia.

Flanker Matt Cox continues his recovery from illness, which also ruled him out of the first two months of the season.

Fiji international prop Ropate Rinakama is set for his club debut off the bench having been signed as a medical joker earlier this month to cover the injured Nick Schonert and Farai Mudariki at tighthead.

Scrum-half Callum Morris is also in line for a club debut as a replacement. Morris missed most of last season, his first on the Three Pears Warriors Academy, because of a stress fracture of the back.

He returned to action last month with Stourbridge, where he has been playing on a dual registration, in National Two North.

There are three guest players among Cavaliers’ replacements, the Birmingham Moseley pair of Harry Barnes and Jamal Gask-Clarke and Matt McNab of Hartpury.

Cavaliers

15 Scott Van Breda
14 Tom Howe
13 Oli Morris
12 Luke Scully
11 Nick David
10 Gareth Simpson
9 Jonno Kitto
1 Ryan Bower
2 Isaac Miller
3 Joe Morris
4 Justin Clegg
5 James Scott
6 Morgan Monks
7 Matt Cox
8 Tom Dodd (C)

Replacements

16 Beck Cutting
17 Kai Owen
18 Lewis Holsey
19 Ropate Rinakama
20 Harry Barnes (Birmingham Moseley)
21 Callum Morris
22 Matt McNab (Hartpury)
23 Jamal Clarke (Birmingham Moseley)

Sale Jets | 15 Joe Carpenter, 14 James Magee, 13 Connor Doherty, 12 Cameron Redpath, 11 Tom Roebuck, 10 James Williams, 9 Gus Warr. 1 Ben Carlisle, 2 Curtis Langdon, 3 Joe Jones, 4 Reuban Birch, 5 Will Smith, 6 Sam Dugdale, 7 Cameron Neild, 8 Sam Moore.

Replacements | 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Jake Pope, 18 Ben Jackson, 19 James Harper, 20 Ewan Murphy 21 Reiss Cullen, 22 Jack Metcalf, 23 Joe Bedlow.

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