Nottingham v Bedford Blues - RFU Championship semi-final second leg match preview
Nottingham will welcome back Tim Streather as they look to overturn a nine-point deficit against Bedford.
Last Updated: 10/05/13 11:00am
Nottingham suffered a 26-17 loss to the Blues in the first leg at Goldington Road, however they head into Friday's second leg at Meadow Lane determined to set the record straight.
Streather, who has been nominated for the RPA Championship Player of the Year Award, is the only change to the side - with Andy Forsyth dropping to the bench.
Nottingham head coach Martin Haag said: "At home we have scored a lot of tries and we are not overly worried about what deficit we need to overturn.
Threats
"We've got lots of attacking threats and we've got a good defensive game as well, we need to take that all out onto the field on Friday night.
"We've got to trust ourselves, we've got to back ourselves and believe in all of the work we have done to this point."
Bedford, who have lost to the eventual play-off champions for the past three seasons, have decided to name the same line-up for the second leg.
Director of rugby Mike Rayer has an almost fully fit squad to pick from however he has stuck with the winning formula.
Nottingham: 15 David Jackson 14 Alex Lewington 13 Tim Streather 12 Joe Munro 11 Rhys Crane 10 James Arlidge 9 Sean Romans; 1 Matt Parr 2 Joe Duffey 3 Michael Holford 4 Dan Montagu 5 Nic Rouse 6 Rupert Cooper 7 Brent Wilson 8 Alex Shaw.
Replacements: 16 Shaun Malton 17 Ryan Bower 18 Tom Price 19 Tom Calladine 20 Harrison Lee-Everton 21 Rory Lynn 22 Andy Forsyth.
Bedford: 15 Ben Ransom, 14 James Stephenson, 13 Brendan Burke, 12 Mark Atkinson, 11 James Short, 10 Myles Dorrian, 9 Luke Baldwin, 1 Darren Fearn, 2 Neil Cochrane, 3 Dan Seal, 4 Mike Howard, 5 Paul Tupai, 6 Gregor Gillanders, 7 Darren Fox (c), 8 Nick Fenton-Wells.
Replacements: 16 Scott Spurling, 17 Phil Boulton, 18 Ben Gulliver, 19 Don Barrell, 20 Darryl Veenendaal, 21 Jake Sharp 22 Ollie Dodge