Quins strong for Bath clash

Published: Friday, 23. March, 2012 in category Harlequins
Brown: Back from international duty for Harlequins

On his return from international duty, Mike Brown starts at full-back alongside Ugo Monye and Tom Williams. Jordan Turner-Hall and George Lowe continue in tandem in the centres, while Nick Evans and Danny Care start at half back.

Joe Marler also returns from international duty alongside Joe Gray and James Johnston in the front row.

Ollie Kohn partners the returning George Robson who will also captain the side.

Tom Guest, Luke Wallace and Nick Easter make up the back row. Chris Robshaw will be ready to return against Saracens at Wembley next week having been given the week off to recover post Six Nations.

The bench sees Rob Buchanan, Mark Lambert and Will Collier covering the specialist front row positions.

Tomas Vallejos and the returning Mo Fa'asavalu will look to impact in the back five. Karl Dickson and Rory Clegg cover at half back with Ross Chisholm covering the remainder of the back-line.

Amongst those players unavailable are Tim Fairbrother (calf), Chris Brooker (knee), Charlie Matthews (ankle), Charlie Walker (Hong Kong Sevens) and Sam Twomey (shoulder).

The Premiership leaders - a position Quins have held since September - know that a 14th victory of the league campaign would maintain their course towards a home play-off tie in May.

Quins have dipped slightly in recent weeks, losing at Gloucester and being held away from home by Newcastle in a bruising contest that saw three Falcons players cited.

But their New Zealand international fly-half Evans said: "It will be nice to return to the Stoop - it feels like ages since we have been there.

"It is the start of a big passage of time for us leading into the play-offs.

"After the start we had to the season a lot of people thought we would fall by the wayside, but to our credit we have managed to stick with it.

"But Bath are fighting for a European spot, so it is going to be a big game and a start of a big run-in."

Nick Abendanon, Olly Woodburn, Nathan Catt, Pieter Dixon, David Wilson and Simon Taylor all return to the starting line-up for Bath.

There are also returns for Ross Batty, Kane Palma-Newport, Mark McMillan and Dan Hipkiss, who are all named on the bench in a matchday squad containing 10 changes from the LV= Cup Semi Final defeat to Leicester Tigers two weeks ago.

Abendanon comes back in at full-back, with Woodburn joining Tom Biggs on the wings. Matt Carraro and Olly Barkley combine in the centres, with Tom Heathcote and Michael Claassens continuing their half back pairing.

Up front, Catt, Dixon and Wilson form a new front row, with Dave Attwood and Ryan Caldwell joining forces in the engine room. Taylor completes the pack alongside Carl Fearns and Francois Louw in the back row.