Hertfordshire open their Bill Beaumont Cup campaign against Gloucestershire at Lydney on Saturday. after welcoming two of their Twickenham heroes back into the squad. Centre Luke Sloan (Hertford) and hooker Tavita Faamausili (Stevenage Town) played key roles in the 20-13 County Championship Shield win over North Midlands in 2005.

Both are involved again this season while Herts can also call on flanker Chris Rainbow and prop Simon Carter from National One side Newbury.

Henley's Dave Archer leads the side again and a hard core of Hertford players will be supported by several from Tring, Welwyn and Stevenage Town, who have all enjoyed superb league seasons. Archer says "It's a tough ask to go to Gloucestershire but we're confident in our ability and even if we draw from sides further down the divisions we know they can step up - they're definitely all up for it."

Herts will add their extra players to the squad that took part in a warm-up game against a powerful Crawshay's Welsh XV at Old Albanians last weekend. Crawshay's won 54-21 but Herts took plenty of positives out of the game, not least the three second half tries from Ian Crompton and Adam Amos (both Stevenage Town) and Handre Schmidt (Hertford).