Max Ojomoh will return to the Bath Rugby side for their Investec Champions Cup Round 3 match at French outfit Castres Olympique tomorrow, Friday 9th January (8pm GMT).
Bath Rugby will be chasing their second Investec Champions Cup win of the season when they visit Castres Olympique, before completing their Pool 2 fixtures here at The Rec when they face Edinburgh Rugby next week | Photo © Richard Briggs
The England back will start at outside centre for the Blue, Black & White in the Pool 2 encounter at Le Stade Pierre-Fabre against a Castres team who lie in 10th place in the Top 14.
However, Castres are second in Pool 2, one point behind leaders Bath, having beaten Edinburgh Rugby 33-0 in Round 2 and lost 34-14 at Gloucester Rugby in their opener.
Ojomoh suffered a knock in Bath’s Gallagher PREM defeat by Northampton Saints on Saturday 27th December and was not available for selection for the league win over Exeter Chiefs on Saturday 3rd January.
But he will line up alongside Cameron Redpath in midfield as Johann van Graan’s side chase the second victory of their Champions Cup campaign, following a 40-14 triumph over Munster Rugby and a 45-34 reverse at French club RC Toulon.
Bath’s front row will be unchanged from the 33-26 success against the Chiefs, Beno Obano, Tom Dunn and Vilikesa Sela retaining their starting jerseys.
Quinn Roux will come back into the starting line-up, joining Ross Molony in the tight five.
Ted Hill and Alfie Barbeary retain their positions in the back row, with Miles Reid coming in to complete the pack.
Ben Spencer will captain from scrum-half, Finn Russell will continue at fly-half and Will Muir, Henry Arundell and Santi Carreras will complete the back line.
Francois van Wyk, Kepu Tuipulotu, Thomas du Toit, Josh Bayliss, Guy Pepper, Tom Carr-Smith, Will Butt and Joe Cokanasiga will be Bath’s replacements.
Ollie Lawrence and Sam Underhill are unavailable for selection after suffering knocks during the victory over Exeter.
Charlie Ewels, Ewan Richards, Jaco Coetzee, Ciaran Donoghue and Neil le Roux are also unavailable.
Bath starting XV: 1 Beno Obano, 2 Tom Dunn, 3 Vilikesa Sela, 4 Quinn Roux 5 Ross Molony, 6 Ted Hill, 7 Miles Reid, 8 Alfie Barbeary, 9 Ben Spencer, 10 Finn Russell, 11 Will Muir, 12 Cameron Redpath, 13 Max Ojomoh, 14 Henry Arundell, 15 Santi Carreras.
Bath replacements: 16 Kepu Tuipulotu, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Josh Bayliss, 20 Guy Pepper, 21 Tom Carr-Smith, 22 Will Butt, 23 Joe Cokanasiga.
Former England and Harlequins prop Will Collier has been named at tighthead for Castres.
Castres starting XV: 1 Quentin Walcker, 2 Teddy Durand-Pradere, 3 Will Collier, 4 Guillaume Ducat, 5 Florent Vanverberghe, 6 Baptiste Delaporte, 7 Baptiste Cope, 8 Tyler Ardron, 9 Jeremy Fernandez, 10 Pierre Popelin, 11 Nathanael Hulleu, 12 Jack Goodhue, 13 Vuate Karawalevu, 14 Christian Ambadiang, 15 Theo Chabouni.
Castres replacements: 16 Loris Zarantonello, 17 Atunaisa Sokobale, 18 Nicolas Corato, 19 Tom Staniforth, 20 Simon Meka, 21 Gauthier Doubrere, 22 Enzo Herve, 23 Geoffrey Palis.
Meanwhile, Bath’s under-18s thumped their Gloucester counterparts 50-31 at Allington Fields, Chippenham, in the PREM Rugby Next Gen academy league on Saturday 3rd January.
Freddie Beasley bagged a hat-trick of tries inside the opening 26 minutes for the Blue, Black & White.
Bath – who had 60% of the possession and 58% of the territory and led 31-12 at the turnaround – scored eight tries against a Cherry & White side who touched down five times in the Round 4 encounter.
The unbeaten Somerset team, who are top of the table, will face hosts Exeter at Flowerpot Playing Fields on Saturday 10th January in Round 5 (2pm).
