Team News Nottingham v Blackheath - Elior Champ round 1 -Friday 18th September

[Rothman2]

After what seems an eternity welcome back to the team news for the first game of Elior Champ season 2026/27.

A brand new season on a brand new website and the two teams with the honour of kicking it off are Nottingham and Blackheath who cross swords at Lady Bay, kick off 7.45pm

Nottingham finished ninth in the Champ last season, having been back at level 2 since the end of the 2003/04 season, a total of 22 seasons.

In contrast Blackheath are back at this level for the first time since being relegated at the end of the 1998/99 season from what was then known as Allied Dunbar Premiership 2, a gap of 27 seasons.

However, they arrive at Lady Bay in sparking form having not lost a league game since losing 36-19 away to Rosslyn Park back in January, since when they won 11 consecutive games to finish the season in second place, four points behind Roth.
This gave them the advantage of a home play off against Plymouth Albion which they won 22-10 to set up an ascension final at London Scottish which they convincingly won 27-7 to relegate Scottish & take the remaining slot in the Champ for 26/27.

The teams selected are as follows:

Nottingham:
1 Oran Murphy, 2 Harry Clarke, 3 Dan Richardson, 4 Kody Vereti, 5 Will Rampley, 6 Sam Green, 7 Michael Green, 8 Jay Ecclesfield (C), 9 Will Yarnell, 10 Shane O’Leary (VC), 11 Matty Ward, 12 Morgan Adderly-Jones, 13 Charlie Davies, 14 David Williams, 15 Harry Simpson. Replacements: 16 Arthur Allen, 17 Anseko Nisio, 18 Oli Crane, 19 Tommy Hamilton, 20 Iestyn Rees, 21 Matt Durbridge, 22 Evan Mitchell, 23 Luke Rokomoco

Blackheath:
1 Seb Brownhill, 2 Billy Harding (C), 3 Dan Richardson, 4 Ehize Ehizode, 5 Ed Scragg, 6 Josh Smart (VC), 7 Noah Sloot, 8 Archie Smeaton, 9 Jake Burns (VC), 10 Sam Morley, 11 Noah Ferdinand, 12 Kegan Christian-Goss, 13 Luke Pollock, 14 Tom Hughes, 15 Iwan Price-Thomas. Replacements: 16 Archie Bourne, 17 Archie Holland, 18 James Cornish, 19 Mike Etete, 20 Harry Taylor, 21 Kyle McGhie, 22 Ed Dunford, 23 Jake Hennessy.

[FlyingRuck]

Dan Richardson won't be playing tighthead for Blackheath!
It will be Rory Marsh.