Heward looks set to debut for Bears
NEW signing Noah Heward is set to make his Bristol Bears debut on Friday night when the club take on Cardiff Rugby in an AngloWelsh friendly fixture organised to fill a gap in the fixture list, writes John Evely.
The game has been organised to replace Bristol’s scheduled game against Worcester Warriors who have gone into administration and subsequently been suspended and relegated from the Gallagher Premiership.
The loss of the fixture was expected to 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 entire 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.
Winger 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: 15. Noah Heward, 14. Deago Bailey, 13. Joe Jenkins, 12. Harry Ascherl, 11. Gabriel Ibitoye, 10. Ioan Lloyd, 9. Will Porter; 1. Aristot Benz-Salomon, 2. Jake Kerr, 3. Jonathan Benz-Salomon, 4. Ed Holmes, 5. Joe Joyce (c), 6. Joe Batley, 7. Fitz Harding, 8. Magnus Bradbury.
Replacements: 16. Harry Thacker, 17. Yann Thomas, 18. Jay Tyack, 19. Dan Thomas, 20. Sam Lewis, 21. Andy Uren, 22. James Williams, 23. Rich Lane
■ England star Jack Willis looks set to spend the rest of the season playing in the French Top 14 despite three Premiership clubs being keen to sign the flanker.
Willis, who came off the bench for his sixth international cap on Sunday in England’s 29-30 defeat to Argentina, is a free agent after Wasps went into administration last month, making 167 members of staff redundant. The 25-yearold is considered one of the jewels in the crown of the former Wasps squad and attracted interest from Bristol Bears, Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints, however it seems none of the three can find room within the league’s £5m salary cap this term.
The Telegraph report Toulouse now look the most likely club to land the forward, with his brother Tom Willis linked with a move to Bordeaux Begles.
Such a move until the end of the season would not hinder Willis’ availability for England ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup as the RFU have made an exemption to their overseas player regulations for out-of-work Wasps and Worcester players.