Bath Rugby will bring a host of Internationals to Rodney Parade for their pre season friendly match against the Newport Gwent Dragons.
The Bath side contains 11 internationals with the starting XV containing six including lock Danny Grewcock who was sent home from the Lions tour and will be making his first appearance since the incident. Grewcock has completed his ban and will be joined in the second row with fellow England international and Bath captain Steve Borthwick. Also named in the starting XV are England’s Matt Perry, Olly Barkley, Duncan Bell (formerly of Pontypridd) and Samoan Zak Feaunati.
Bath have named a bench of 15 with players expected to play either 40 or sixty minutes. Like The Dragons Bath are undefeated in their previous two pre season matches and both sides are expecting a physical encounter on Saturday.
Bath coach John Connolly commented, “We will definitely be looking to improve from our performance against Launceston. We made a few mistakes and our execution was not brilliant, but this game has much more of a big match feel to it and that is the kind of intensity that we need at this stage. “The good thing is that we are competitive across the board. Front row is wide open, second row is competitive and I thought that Rob Fidler was outstanding last weekend. Half back is also an area that is competitive with three scrum halves and three outside halves all chomping at the bit – it is a good position to be in.”
Bath Rugby
15. Matt Perry 14. Lee Best 13. Andy Higgins 12. Olly Barkley 11. Frikkie Welsh 10. Chris Malone 9. Nick Walshe 1. David Barnes 2. Lee Mears 3. Duncan Bell 4. Steve Borthwick 5. Danny Grewcock 6. Andy Beattie 7. James Scaysbrook 8. Zak Feaunati
Replacements
Nick Abemdanon, Andy Williams, Matt Stevens, Pieter Dixon, Spencer Davey, Chris Loader, Ryan Davis, Rob Fidler, Mike Mangeolles, James Hudson, Andy Dunne, Peter Short, Martyn Wood, Chris Goodman, Gareth Delve
