THE first competitive team action for the ‘Cases’ Somerset Rebels at their Oaktree Arena home this season takes place this Friday (April 7), with the first leg of their SGB Premiership KO Cup tie against the Leicester Lions.

Somerset go into Friday’s match with their full complement of seven riders, the match marking the full home debuts of Danish duo Patrick Hougaard and reserve Jan Graversen.

Rebels team manager Garry May said: “We will be looking to build up a decent first-leg lead to take to Leicester for the second leg. 

“But by the same token Leicester will be doing their upmost to stop us from doing that.

“With the match coming at the start of the season, there is no real form guide ahead of this match, so it will be interesting to see how things pan out. 

“Having said that, with us having retained five of the team from last season, I think that will give us an advantage come Friday.”

Teams:
Somerset; Rohan Tungate (9.03), Josh Grajczonek [c] (8.90), Patrick Hougaard (8.70), Paul Starke (6.62), Charles Wright (6.59), Jake Allen (5.96), Jan Graversen (4.00)
Leicester: Kim Nilsson (9.63), Danny King [c] (9.57), Kacper Gomolski (7.71), Rider Replacement for Josh Auty (7.01), Lasse Bjerre [g] (6.85), Josh Bates (5.02), Danny Ayres (3.61)

BT Sport have announced their live fixtures for the 2017 season, with the re-match between Somerset and Leicester at the Oaktree Arena on August 14 being selected - see the full list here.