Blaydon duo on the bench (From The Northern Echo)

Blaydon duo on the bench

10:15am Friday 19th March 2010 in

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BLAYDON duo Matt Hall and James Fitzpatrick will have to settle for a place on the bench when the England Counties XV play France Amateurs in Lille tonight.

Following his call-up to the squad last weekend, Fitzpatrick might have expected to take the place of Tynedale centre Jack Harrison, who was left out after featuring in the win against the Irish Clubs.

But former Mowden Park player Mark Bedworth, who plays at fly half for Wharfedale, has been selected at centre alongside London Scottish’s Rory Damant.

Hall, the Blaydon hooker and skipper, again provides cover for Tynedale’s Joe Graham, who is joined in the team by two clubmates, prop Jonny Williams and winger Hamish Smales.

Wharfedale back row man Rob Baldwin also features, so both the Grassington-based club and Blaydon will wait to see how their men emerge from Lille before finalising their sides for Sunday’s National One clash.

Counties manager Danny Hodgson is still smarting from his team’s performance the last time they played France Amateurs.

“We got beaten by them at Twickenham last year, when we were well below our best.

A setting like that, our first outing at Twickenham, and we let the occasion beat us,”

he said.

“This year I think we’ve the strongest squad that we’ve ever had for the spring internationals.”

Former Mowden Park back row man Michael Ellery returns at No 8 for Westoe tomorrow following his threeweek suspension.

But centre Mark Olugbode’s job has taken him to China for a year, so he will miss the National Two North match at Harrogate.

There was a threat two weeks ago of Harrogate being locked out of their ground because of a dispute with the developers, Crest Nicholson.

Harrogate won 29-14 at Westoe in September and are fourth in the table, three places above their visitors, whose captain, Gareth Nesbit, has stressed that there is still much to play for.

Middlesbrough host Sheffield Tigers tomorrow and will be without hooker Richard Horton following his two yellow cards at Mowden Park last Saturday. His cousin Ben takes over, while Martin Dixon returns to the second row alongside Richie Barker.

Last week’s hat-trick hero Shaun McLaren holds his place on the Stockton wing for the trip to Ashington. Centre Steve Thornton is unavailable so top try scorer Tom Jeffery takes his place after missing last week’s 60-point romp against Consett with a knee injury. The forwards are unchanged.