WARRIORS welcome back Scotland and British and Irish Lions loosehead prop Rory Sutherland for Sunday’s Gallagher Premiership match against Bath Rugby at The Rec (kick-off 3pm).
Sutherland suffered a severe dead leg in the win over Wasps six weeks ago but returned to full training this week and will start against Bath as one of six changes to the side that faced Saracens in Warriors’ last Premiership match two weeks ago.
Tighthead prop Christian Judge and hooker Niall Annett, who both came off the bench at Saracens, start in a completely new front row with Judge facing the club he joined Warriors from last summer.
Perry Humphreys returns on the right wing with Gareth Simpson, who impressed and scored a try when he came on as a replacement at Saracens, starting at scrum-half.
Former England back-row forward Matt Kvesic starts at number eight in place of Sione Vailanu who has been ruled out following a positive COVID-19 test.
Fly-half Billy Searle also misses out having tested positive for COVID-19 after Warriors independently conducted an additional round of PCR tests on Monday as an extra precaution to protect the playing squad before they resumed training after a week off.
Scrum-half Will Chudley, who also arrived at Sixways from Bath during the summer, and former Bath captain Matt Garvey are both set to face their former club having been named among the replacements.
Warriors | 15 Jamie Shillcock, 14 Perry Humphreys, 13 Francois Venter (CC), 12 Ashley Beck, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Gareth Simpson, 1 Rory Sutherland, 2 Niall Annett, 3 Christian Judge, 4 Joe Batley, 5 Andrew Kitchener, 6 Kyle Hatherell, 7 Ted Hill (CC), 8 Matt Kvesic.
Replacements | 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Jay Tyack, 19 Matt Garvey, 20 Sam Lewis, 21 Will Chudley, 22 Oli Morris, 23 Harri Doel.