RISING star Ben Howard has been given the chance to prove himself on the wing when Worcester Warriors take on Cornish Pirates at Sixways tomorrow (Saturday).
The 21-year-old, who has made eight appearances at full back this season, has struggled to break into the first team since Chris Pennell has returned from injury.
But director of rugby Dean Ryan has now presented Howard with an opportunity to shine down the flanks as he replaces Sam Smith, who struck four times against Yorkshire Carnegie.
Other notable changes sees Leonardo Senatore take the place of GJ Van Velze as Jonathan Thomas re-claims the captaincy, while centre Andy Symons joins Max Stelling in midfield.
Argentina skipper Agustin Creevy and Ryan Mills are named in the replacements – as are Richard de Carpentier and James Stephenson, who may get opportunities from the bench after impressing for the Cavaliers.
Ryan said: “Some of these changes are based around selection, some are based around moving players into different places.
“Our group of players is quite wide and that makes it quite competitive because we don’t have a real distinction between the top and the bottom.
“That does make it difficult to select and it is fine margins which dictate why we play some people and not others.”
Ryan said he was also expecting to see his players produce a more consistent display against Cornish Pirates as they struggled to get out of the blocks at Yorkshire, who burst into a 14-0 lead before Worcester eventually found their feet and ran out convincing winners.
“We were unhappy with the first 40 minutes against Yorkshire,” he added. “We just didn’t get things right mentally and that was frustrating. We scored 36 points there onwards but we need to be better than that.
“The Championship is hard to be high emotionally week in week out. We’ve done a pretty good job but that was a bit of a dip and I don’t want to see that level of dip again.”
Warriors’s side to face Cornish Pirates: Pennell, Howard, Stelling, Symons, Biggs, Lamb, Arr, Rapava Ruskin, George, Schonert, Williams, O’Shea, Thomas (C), Betty, Senatore
Replacements: Creevy, Bower, Rees, De Carpentier, Mulchrone, Mills, Stephenson