“The break has allowed us to rest a few guys and get them back to full fitness, it’s also allowed us to work on one or two things,” said Director of Rugby, Tim Fourie.

“In particular we’ve been looking at our set-pieces and defensive options and as a result we’ve decided to make one or two changes to the starting front five for this game.

“Defensively the problem has not just been down to the backs; the forwards have not been getting up in support quick enough.

“Fitness is always going to be an issue especially with part-timers like ourselves going up more and more against full-time professional outfits.

“So against Bedford we’re going to start with Alistair Livesey, Jonny Roddam and Martin Halsall in the front row, along with Glen Townson and myself in the second row. We will then introduce Phil Gazzola, Petrus Du Plessis, Juan Crous and Ed Norris throughout the game.

“The backs will be the same as last week, with Chris Leck starting at scrum-half and Jamie Albinson on the bench. Chris Hall has looked good at fullback while Andy Craig and Luther Burrell are starting to click in the centres.

“This is the first of our remaining seven games and it is vital, because if we can beat Bedford it would be a real confidence booster and it could put us on the way to achieving our goal of four more wins, which we are more than capable of achieving.

“If we do that the two teams below us in the relegation places more or less have to win all their games and I can’t see that happening.”

After picking up an arm injury during training on Thursday night, skipper Jimmy Ponton is replaced by Juan Crous, with Dave Livesey making the bench as backrow cover.

SEDGLEY TIGERS    v BEDFORD BLUES

HALL, Chris      15 PRITCHARD, James 
VAN DEVENTER,Jan 14 MOIR, Craig
CRAIG, Andy      13 ROBERTS, Liam
BURRELL, Luther  12 YOUNGS, Tom
BRIERS, Chris    11 HINKINS, James
JONES, Phil      10 ELRICK, Jon
LECK, Chris       9 DICKSON, Karl
LIVESEY, Alistair 1 HAWKSWORTH, Dave
RODDAM Jonny      2 RICHMOND, Dan
HALSALL, Martin   3 LYON, Alistair 
FOURIE, Tim       4 PHILLIPS, Jon
TOWNSON, Glen     5 BRENTON, Arthur
CROUS, Juan       6 BOTHA, Mouritz
NEWTON, Adam      7  HARDING, Sacha
SKURR, Jon        8 LUMBY, James
 
GAZZOLA, Phil    16 SAMMONS, Greg
KEYS, Paul       17 CECERE, Marco
DU PLESSIS, P    18 GRAHAM, James
NORRIS, Ed       19 COMBS, Marc 
LIVESEY, Dave    20 CHUDLEY, Will 
ALBINSON, Jamie  21 PATSTON, Ben
PAYNE, Freeman   22 ALLEN, Matt