Worcester Warriors have named a side with a blend of youth and experience for the rearranged Guinness Premiership clash with Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop on Wednesday night (kick-off 7.45pm).
The original game in January was postponed due to a frozen pitch and so Director of Rugby Mike Ruddock is forced to shuffle his side for the new trip to London.
Ruddock hands full senior league debuts to five players with Michael Penn, Greg King, Jack Gilding, Shaun Ruwers and David Lyons all in the starting line-up for the first time.
Warriors also welcome on loan Ross Davies on the replacements bench with the prop having signed for April from Fylde.
The team will be captained by former Harlequins player Matt Powell at scrum half.
“The rationale underpinning selection is to enable us to negotiate three games in six days and that obviously means that a number of changes have to be made for this midweek game,” said Ruddock.
“Midweek rugby is not an ideal situation in the Guinness Premiership at any time, but particularly at this moment of time when we are scrapping for every point we can get. However, the postponement from earlier this season has created this difficulty.
“What it does to is provide an opportunity for a number of young players to get the chance to ‘put their hands up’ and show that they have the ability to break through into the first team on a more regular basis.
“Last year youngsters like Miles Benjamin, Tom Wood, Matt Mullan, Chris Pennell, Joe Carlisle and Jonny Arr became established respected figures in the senior squad after making their league debuts and we are hoping that from this team a number of others are able to achieve a similar status.”
Warriors v Harlequins
15 Loki Crichton
14 Michael Penn
13 Hal Luscombe
12 Greg King
11 Charlie Fellows
10 Joe Carlisle
9 Matt Powell (c)
1 Jack Gilding
2 Chris Fortey
3 Shaun Ruwers
4 David Lyons
5 Craig Gillies
6 James Collins
7 Jake Abbott
8 Tom Wood
16 Ross Davies
17 Jordan Page
18 Graham Kitchener
19 Rob Wood
20 Jonny Arr
21 George Crook
22 Tom Wheatcroft