Willie Walker will make his first start for Worcester Warriors when they face Leicester Tigers in the Guinness Premiership at Welford Road on Saturday (kick-off 3pm) – and wing wonder Miles Benjamin is also named in the squad.
Versatile back Walker, on loan from Gloucester for the rest of the season, replaces the injured Chris Latham at full back.
Warriors are also boosted by the return to the squad of Benjamin as the winger is named on the replacements bench after recovering from breaking his leg in France in December.
Director of Rugby Mike Ruddock makes a total of five changes to his starting line-up with Matt Powell named at scrum half.
Darren Morris, Chris Fortey and Craig Gillies all come into the pack as Ruddock looks to keep his squad fresh ahead of a busy schedule of rugby in the coming weeks.
“We have had a tough two games and in those the team has made 271 tackles. When you look at the work that our front five have faced it becomes obvious that, with the next four games being of huge magnitude, we needed to share the load before we arrive at the Bristol game,” said Ruddock.
“For example, during the last two games Matt Mullan, though work at the scrums, clearing our rucks and ball carrying, has had 118 contacts. Players like Aleki Lutui has faced 101 contacts and Greg Rawlinson 95.
“It is now a 22-man game and my plan is to introduce fresh players into the front five before unleashing the likes of Rawlinson, Mullan and Lutui off the bench early in the second half at Leicester.”
Warriors will face a difficult task against Tigers and Ruddock admits his team knows what to expect.
He said: “They are going to be direct, will come at us and be very physical with their set-piece, breakdown skills and big runners.
“Our defence has got to be spot on. We can’t let tackles through in midfield like we did against Bath. If they are going to beat us we have to make them do that on the outside.
“As we saw against Bath we have got people who can finish. It was great to see Rico Gear coming back to his best form the other day and Marcel Garvey can finish. We have got to hold the ball and get it to them. That’s our goal and we don’t feel we are a million miles away from achieving that goal.
“There is a very upbeat and united camp. I can assure everyone we will be going there to give it our best shot.”
Warriors v Leicester Tigers
15 Willie Walker
14 Rico Gear
13 Dale Rasmussen
12 Loki Crichton
11 Marcel Garvey
10 Joe Carlisle
9 Matt Powell
1 Darren Morris
2 Chris Fortey
3 Tevita Taumoepeau
4 Will Bowley
5 Craig Gillies
6 Tom Wood
7 Pat Sanderson (c)
8 Kai Horstmann
16 Matt Mullan
17 Aleki Lutui
18 Greg Rawlinson
19 Netani Talei
20 Ryan Powell
21 Alex Grove
22 Miles Benjamin