Jonathan Joseph will play his 150th game for Bath as they welcome champions Harlequins to The Rec in tonight’s Premiership clash.
The centre has been at the club for eight years after joining as a 22-year-old from London Irish and has been a key member of Bath’s backline since, earning England and British and Irish Lions honours.
Prop Arthur Cordwell makes his first Premiership start and new loanee signing Nathan Hughes makes his Bath debut.
Last time out in the Premiership, Bath got a βmonkey off their back’ according to Orlando Bailey after securing their first win of the season against Worcester Warriors.
Fly half Bailey, Charlie Ewels and Will Stuart are all unavailable for tonight’s game due to their England commitments, but centre Cameron Redpath starts despite spending the week with Scotland.
Director of rugby Stuart revealed that 29 players were unavailable for last weekend’s 64-7 drubbing at home to Leinster in Europe, but Hooper does welcome the returns of Will Muir, Jaco Coetzee and Joseph.
Bath back rower Tom Ellis said: βWe’re all excited for Quins. We haven’t been where we want to be but if you watched the Quins game at their place, with seven minutes to go it was close through a good style of rugby which I think we can hang our hat on again this week.β
Bath remain bottom of the table on just 10 points, while Harlequins lie in third after three straight wins.
Last time out in the Premiership Tabai Matson’s side beat Exeter Chiefs 14-12 in a rematch of last season’s Premiership final.
Harlequins have won their last four games in all competitions by three points or less leaving it late on each occasion.
The league’s entertainers thrive in the final 20 minutes of matches conceding on average just four points, with only league leaders Leicester Tigers (3.3) conceding fewer in the final quarter of matches.
Senior coach Matson said: “I think Bath are going to ruin a lot of people’s weekends this year and we’ve got to go into it with a clear game plan to go to The Rec and play well. We haven’t managed to play well for a full 80 minutes for about a month, so we are focusing on an 80-minute performance this Friday.”
Written by Ben Jaycock
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