Depleted Irish host Warriors without England call ups

In-form London Irish host Worcester Warriors at the Brentford Community Stadium having had to let go of two key names for England duty.

Eddie Jones has called up Ollie Hassell-Collins and Jake Goodrick-Clarke, replaced in the Irish XV by Kyle Rowe on the wing and Facundo Gigena and at loosehead prop respectively.

Benhard Janse van Rensburg comes in at centre, Ollie Hoskins props on the other side to Gigena, and Juan Martin Gonzalez and Sean O’Brien return to the back row to complete the Irish changes from the team that drew away at Sale Sharks last Friday night.

Meanwhile Worcester make eight changes from the team beaten by champions Harlequins on the same evening, with the return of Willi Heinz from a five-month groin lay off the headline change.

Duhan Van der Merwe returns from scoring on Scotland duty on the wing, with Ashley Beck at outside centre, while fly-half Billy Searle joins Heinz in the half-backs.

In an almost completely new look front five, Isaac Miller and Ethan Waller come into the front row while Justin Clegg and Andrew Kitchener both come off the bench to make up a new starting second row.

Having had such a strong start to the season and with Steve Diamond now at the helm, Worcester will want to get back to winning ways here and pull away from the bottom of the table, having won just once in the Premiership this calendar year.

But they face a formidable Irish side who have lost only once this year, and despite winning only seven of their 17 games so far this year, sit just two points behind fourth placed Exeter Chiefs in the race for a play-off spot.

Irish have managed a league record for the number of draws they have accumulated over the course of the season with four in total and two each at home and away.

But having won every home game in all competitions since the beginning of November, they will be expecting to come away with all five points from this encounter, as Worcester look to cause an upset to their play-off ambitions.

Written by Nick Powell