London Welsh v London Irish: Aviva Premiership preview
Last Updated: 27/02/15 3:43pm
London Irish have made four changes for Saturday’s basement battle with London Welsh at the Kassam Stadium.
Glenn Delaney’s side fell to their 11th loss of the season against Leicester Tigers last Sunday to leave them in 11th place, but they remain 22 points clear of their fellow exiles.
Having been dominated in the scrum against the Tigers, Irish head coach Delaney makes two changes to his front row, with Matt Parr and Leo Halavatau packing down on either side of hooker David Paice.
Nic Rouse joins skipper George Skivington in the second row, while James Short replaces the injured Topsy Ojo on the wing.
Winless London Welsh crashed to their 15th successive Aviva Premiership defeat at Gloucester last weekend, and they make seven changes for the visit of Irish to Oxford.
Nick Scott comes in on the left wing, James Lewis starts at outside centre, and Rob Lewis takes over the No 9 jersey from Piri Weepu.
In the forwards, Jack Gilding starts at tighthead, club captain Matt Corker returns to the second row and Opeti Fonua to the No 8 jersey, with Ben Pienaar moving to blindside flanker.
Saturday’s game will be the 133rd meeting between the clubs since they first crossed swords in 1898. Irish were 24-9 winners when they met at the Madejski Stadium on Boxing Day, but Welsh were victorious in their previous clash at the Kassam Stadium in 2012.
London Welsh: 15 Elliot Kear, 14 Seb Stegmann, 13 James Lewis, 12 James Tincknell, 11 Nick Scott, 10 Will Robinson, 9 Rob Lewis; 1 Eddie Aholelei, 2 Rob Elloway, 3 Jack Gilding, 4 Dean Schofield, 5 Matt Corker (c), 6 Ben Pienaar, 7 Carl Kirwan, 8 Opeti Fonua.
Replacements: 16 Nathan Morris, 17 Nathan Trevett, 18 Taione Vea, 19 James Down, 20 Richard Thorpe, 21 Alex Davies, 22 Olly Barkley, 23 Nic Reynolds.
London Irish: 15 Andrew Fenby, 14 Alex Lewington, 13 Tom Fowlie, 12 Eamonn Sheridan, 11 James Short, 10 Shane Geraghty, 9 Scott Steele; 1 Matt Parr, 2 David Paice, 3 Leo Halavatau, 4 George Skivington (c), 5 Nic Rouse, 6 Ofisa Treviranus, 7 Conor Gilsenan, 8 Tom Guest.
Replacements: 16 Jimmy Stevens, 17 Tom Court, 18 Richard Palframan, 19 Jebb Sinclair, 20 Luke Narraway, 21 Darren Allinson, 22 Chris Noakes, 23 Eoin Griffin.