Alex Sanderson makes four personnel changes – and three positional switches – as his Sharks side prepare to face Leicester Tigers at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Saturday evening (5.30pm KO, live on TNT Sports).
Jacques Vermeulen and Rekeiti Ma’asi White return after injury while Luke James starts at full-back and James Harper starts at tighthead, meaning a switch to loosehead for Asher Opoku-Fordjour.
The second positional change sees Tom O’Flaherty back on the wing after starting at full-back in round four and the final change sees skipper Ernst van Rhyn move to lock. Dan du Preez returns from injury to take his place on the replacements bench.
With props Bevan Rodd and Si McIntyre missing after sustaining injuries against Saracens, Opoku-Fordjour starts at loosehead prop for the first time this season. He’ll pack down with Cowan-Dickie, who is free to play after having his red card at the StoneX overturned, and Harper.
With Hyron Andrews missing through injury, skipper van Rhyn joins Ben Bamber in the engine room. Vermeulen returns from a hamstring problem to join Tristan Woodman and Sam Dugdale in the back-row.
England fly-half George Ford starts once again alongside scrum-half Gus Warr, and they’ll have the pairing of Ma’asi-White and Rob du Preez outside them in the centres.
O’Flaherty and Tom Roebuck start on the wings with the returning James at full-back.
The Sharks bench is once again packed with young talent with hooker Nathan Jibulu joining Tumy Onasanya and Patreece Bell as the front row replacements. Tom Burrow and du Preez are the rest of the forwards on the bench.
Raffi Quirke, Marius Louw and Arron Reed make up the rest of the replacements.
Starting XV:
15. Luke James, 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Rob du Preez, 12. Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, 11. Tom O’Flaherty, 10. George Ford, 9. Gus Warr; 1. Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. James Harper, 4. Ernst van Rhyn ©, 5. Ben Bamber, 6. Jacques Vermeulen, 7. Tristan Woodman, 8. Sam Dugdale.
Replacements:
16. Nathan Jibulu, 17. Tumy Onasanya, 18. Patreece Bell, 19. Tom Burrow, 20. Dan du Preez, 21. Raffi Quirke, 22. Marius Louw, 23. Arron Reed.