Rugby Heward to make first Bristol appearance in Cardiff friendly
NEW signing Noah Heward is set to make his Bristol Bears debut on Friday night when the club take on Cardiff in an Anglo-Welsh friendly organised to fill a gap in the fixture list.
The game has been arranged to replace Bristol’s scheduled game against Worcester Warriors after they went into administration and were subsequently suspended and relegated from the Gallagher Premiership.
The loss of the fixture has cost the Bears in the region of £300,000, hence the move to arrange home and away fixtures with the United Rugby Championship side.
Heward, 22, arrived last month having found himself out of work when Worcester’s playing squad were made redundant. Before Warriors’ fate was sealed, he made three substitute Premiership appearances this season.
With Bristol looking to rediscover some form, having lost their last five Premiership games, and with a sell-out game against South Africa on the horizon next week, lock Joe Joyce returns from injury to skipper the side.
Wing Gabriel Ibitoye will make his second appearance for the club having made his debut in Saturday’s 25-10 home defeat to Saracens, while Welshman Ioan Lloyd lines up at fly-half.
The game kicks off at 7.45pm on Friday.
Bristol Bears: Noah Heward; Deago Bailey, Joe Jenkins, Harry Ascherl, Gabriel Ibitoye; Ioan Lloyd, Will Porter; Aristot BenzSalomon, Jake Kerr, Jonathan BenzSalomon, Ed Holmes, Joe Joyce , Joe Batley, Fitz Harding, Magnus Bradbury.
Replacements:
» Scotland’s Hollie Davidson has been appointed to referee the women’s World Cup final between England and New Zealand in Auckland on Saturday.
She becomes the second Scottish official to control a women’s World Cup final, following Jim Fleming in 1994.