Forgotten Welsh hooker to make first start since neck surgery
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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No because if it was a 1:1 correspondence it would have been 10 top14, 3 URC and 3 Prem. I did arbitrarily put a max limit per league at 8 because for me if half of the teams are from the top14 it will make no sense. I genuinely didn't think the discussion will go that way tbh as for me it is a details.
Go to commentsFoster should never have been appointed, and I never liked him as a coach, but the hysteria over his coaching and Sam Cane as a player was grounded in prejudice rather than fact.
The New Zealand Rugby public were blinded by their dislike of Foster to the point of idiocy.
Anything the All Blacks did that was good was attributed to Ryan and Schmidt and Fozzie had nothing to do with it.
Any losses were solely blamed on Foster and Cane.
Foster did develop new talent and kept all the main trophies except the World Cup.
His successor kept the core of his team as well as picking Cane despite him leaving for overseas because he saw the irreplaceable value in him.
Razor will take the ABs to the next level, I have full confidence in that.
He should have been appointed in 2020.
But he wasn’t. And the guy who was has never been treated fairly.