FORMER England Under 16 ‘A’ back-row forward Will Radburn will make his debut for North Midlands Under 19s at hooker in their opening game of their defence of the Sable's Head Trophy against Warwickshire at Droitwich tomorrow (7.30pm).

Radburn, a member of the Worcester Warriors academy, played in the back-row at international level two years ago and for Midlands Under 18s in last season's Divisional Festival at Moseley.

But he will be in the front row for the first leg against Warwickshire at North Midlands bid to retain the historic trophy.

The trophy, a mounted antelope's head, was presented to the Midlands Colts by a touring Cape Town and Stellenbosch Universities side and used to be the prize for the Midlands Colts Championship.

But North Midlands and Warwickshire are the only two of the six Midland counties still fielding representative sides at the Under 19 age group and so the trophy has become a keenly-contested prize for the neighbours.

The second leg will be played at Broadstreet RFC near Coventry on October 21 and the winners of the trophy wll be decided by aggregate scores over the two legs.

North Midlands will play one more match at Under 19 level, the annual friendly against Yorkshire at Dudley Kingswinford on November 29, before they start their preparations for this season’s National Under 20 Championship.

The county Under 20s will play Cheshire at Sandbach on December 13 and Warwickshire at Broadstreet on January 10 in warm-up games.

North Midlands will begin their championship campaign with a trip to Staffordshire - venue to be confirmed - on February 9 or 10 and then entertain Notts, Lincs & Derbyshire on February 23 or 24.