Ollie Lawrence will make his Bath Rugby debut on Saturday in the Round 5 Gallagher Premiership West Country derby against Gloucester.
The England international links up with his former Under-20 partner Cameron Redpath in the centre as Head of Rugby Johann van Graan makes six changes to his starting XV.
Homegrown Number 8 Nahum Merigan comes in for his first Premiership start after impressing in the Premiership Rugby Cup and is joined in the back row by Tom Ellis who makes his first league start for eight months following injury.
Dave Attwood returns to the second row to face his former club with Piers Francis reinstated at fly-half.
The front row remains consistent as Tom Dunn captains from hooker with Juan Schoeman and Will Stuart propping either side of him. Lock Quinn Roux and flanker Miles Reid complete the pack.
Scrum-half Louis Schreuder continues in the nine jersey while Gabriel Hamer-Webb, Joe Cokanasiga and Matt Gallagher retain their places in the back three after a try each at London Irish last time out.
On the bench, Ewan Richards is in line for his first appearance of the season and Arthur Cordwell is named after earning Performance of the Match against Saturday’s opponents in the Premiership Rugby Cup 10 days previous.
Bath Rugby team to play Gloucester
THE OPPOSITION
15 Lloyd Evans, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 Giorgi Kveseladze, 12 Mark Atkinson, 11 Santiago Carreras, 10 Adam Hastings, 9 Ben Meehan; 1 Val Rapava-Ruskin, 2 Santiago Socino, 3 Fraser Balmain, 4 Freddie Clarke, 5 Matias Alemanno, 6 Ruan Ackermann, 7 Lewis Ludlow (c), 8 Albert Tuisue
Replacements
16 Jack Singleton, 17 Ciaran Knight, 18 Jamal Ford-Robinson, 19 Cam Jordan, 20 Jordy Reid, 21 Charlie Chapman, 22 Jack Reeves, 23 Jonny May
DIGITAL PROGRAMME
Content & Images from – Bath Rugby
