Worcester Warriors director of rugby John Brain has made four changes to the side that secured an away victory at Northampton Saints for Saturday’s crunch EDF Energy Cup Group D clash with Leicester Tigers at Sixways (3pm).
Hooker Aleki Lutui makes his first start for Warriors, while Ryan Powell returns at scrum-half and Dale Rasmussen will be back at centre.
Brain is looking forward to building on last week’s 12-24 win at Franklin’s Gardens in a cup competition that rewards the winners with a Heineken Cup slot next season. But he also has more than one eye on next Friday’s Guinness Premiership visit of Gloucester to Sixways.
“These EDF games have been about preparing the team for the next Guinness Premiership fixture,” he says. “That’s what they were always about.
“It would give us confidence if we were to continue doing what we did last week. We were very pleased with our first win of the season, particularly away from home. A lot of the players performed very well.
“For me, the key thing is that this is our opportunity to record our first at home against a very good side. It’s important to build on last week,” he adds. “If you’ve got two home matches in your pool stages, you’ve got a reasonable chance of getting to the semi-final.”
Fly-half Shane Drahm and wingers Marcel Garvey and Aisea Havili are both recovering from injuries picked up against Bath a fortnight ago.
Team: 01 Tevita Taumoepeau, 02 Aleki Lutui, 03 Chris Horsman, 04 Richard Blaze, 05 Craig Gillies, 06 Gavin Quinnell, 07 James Collins, 08 Kai Horstmann (c), 09 Ryan Powell, 10 James Brown, 11 Gary Trueman, 12 Simon Whatling, 13 Dale Rasmussen, 14 Mark Tucker, 15 Thinus Delport
Replacements: 16 Lee Fortey, 17 Ben Gotting, 18 Tim Collier, 19 Pat Sanderson, 20 Matt Powell, 21 Miguel Avramovich, 22 Lee Best