NORTH Midlands will begin their preparations for this season’s Bill Beaumont County Championship Division Two campaign with a warm-up match against Worcestershire & Herefordshire at Worcester’s Weston’s Fields tonight (7.30pm).

The match, which will be broken down into 20 minute periods, will be North Midlands’ first under new head coach Steve Joslin.

Joslin, the community rugby manager at Worcester Warriors, is also coach of Worcestershire & Herefordshire who will be seeking a hat-trick of titles in the Iskitz Three Counties Championship when they face Greater Birmingham in the final at Ledbury on May 20.

League commitments mean that a number of players from Birmingham Moseley, Stourbridge, Luctonians, Dudley Kingswinford, Birmingham & Solihull and Newport are not available for North Midlands this week.

North Midlands launch their County Championship campaign with a trip to Gosport & Fareham to face Hampshire on May 5. They then host Warwickshire at Bromsgrove on May 12 and finish their group campaign against Somerset at Taunton on May 19.

North Midlands squad.

Backs: Mark Coulson (Bournville), Ethan Walker (Old Halesonians), Taz Wara (Birmingham Moseley), Jack Richards (Moseley Oak), Llew Williams (Bridgnorth), Sam Foster (Old Halesonians), Jimmy Gore (Bridgnorth), Jordan Burgess (Bridgnorth), Mitch McGahan (Bournville), Gareth Bladen (Bridgnorth).

Forwards: Matt Young (Old Halesonians), Alex Willis (Bournville), Joe Roe (Birmingham Moseley), James Weaver (Bournville), Ryan Smeilius (Bridgnorth), Rob Collins (Bromsgrove), Sam Jones (Old Halesonians), Russ Brown (Droitwich), Steve Handy (Bournville), Charlie Wright (Bridgnorth), Aron Middleton (Droitwich), Josh Tomlinson (Bromsgrove), Connor Nicholls (Bridgnorth).