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Forgotten Welsh hooker to make first start since neck surgery
By Online Editors
Wales hooker Scott Baldwin will make his first start since neck surgery when Harlequins make the Gallagher Premiership trip to Bath on Saturday.
The 31-year-old had been sidelined since November with a neck issue, but came off the bench in the 29-15 home loss to London Irish last weekend.
Captain Chris Robshaw is back in the Quins line-up after illness, with Danny Care also back in the side at scrum-half.
“Last week we didn’t get the result we wanted against a very strong London Irish,” said head coach Paul Gustard.
“A number of errors cost us the game and, regardless of the conditions, we came up short so we have worked hard this week to address those areas of our game to ensure we are in a strong place heading down to The Rec.
“The game was a lot tighter than the scoreline suggested with two late scores on the back of our mistakes after sustained pressure and territory that we failed to convert.
“We have played at Bath already this season, coming away with two wins against them in the Heineken Champions Cup, but we know that Saturday will present a different challenge with both sides aiming to push up the league table.
“Bath come into this game off the back of two narrow victories against Leicester and Worcester, so will be hoping to maintain momentum.”
Bath show three changes for the Quins clash, with Lewis Boyce, Chris Cook and Jack Walker all coming into the starting line-up.
Beno Obano and Tom Dunn are both on England duty, leading Boyce to step up at loosehead and Walker at hooker.
Scrum-half Charlie Chapman will make his full Premiership debut for Gloucester, in Saturday’s trip to London Irish.
Franco Mostert continues as captain, with the Cherry and Whites showing seven changes from last week’s loss to Exeter Chiefs.
Josh Hohneck and Todd Gleave come into the front row, while lock Ed Slater is back after injury and Freddie Clark starts at blindside flanker.
One of those discarded by England, Ollie Thorley, replaces the injured Tom Marshall in the back-three, while Mark Atkinson and Billy Twelvetrees pair up in the centres.
Danny Hobbs-Ayoyemi starts at loosehead for Irish, with Dave Porecki and Ollie Hoskins completing the front-row.
Blair Cowan returns in the back-row after illness, with Wallabies scrum-half Nick Phipps partnering Stephen Myler in the half-backs.
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Latest Comments
Warren, if you think you should stay on coaching Wales, you are beyond deluded. If you love Wales & Welsh rugby as much as you say you do (& I'm sure you probably do) you should resign immediately so this once proud & passionate rugby nation can rebuild without you. How many of your players will make the British & Irish Lions squad.?
It's time to walk the plank.!
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
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