SOUTH-African Gerrit-Jan van Velze is set to captain Worcester Warriors when they take on Sale Sharks tomorrow (Saturday, kick-off 2pm).
The giant number eight, who picked-up an Aviva Premiership winning medal with Northampton Saints last season, will line-up alongside Sam Betty and Mike Williams in the back-row for Warriors second of three pre-season matches.
Academy fly-half Tiff Eden, who is also set to make his first-team debut, has been named vice-captain.
Summer signings Sam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Bruzulier, Val Rapava Ruskin, Dan George, Mike Daniels and Christian Scotland Williamson will all start for Warriors as Dean Ryan’s side go in search of back-to-back pre-season wins.
Academy graduates Ben Howard and Max Stelling keep their places in a backline which also features Josh Drauniniu and Ravai Fatiaki, while James Percival returns to the forward pack.
Warriors Director of Rugby Ryan said: “We’ll see some different people play again and we’ll keep moving forward.
“We’ve spent a lot of time working to get this group in the right place and they looked sharp against European opposition last Friday.
“We have three really tough pre-season games and we did that deliberately so that we can set standards that we have aspirations to achieve.
“We’ve got a lot of growing and a lot of work to do. We have a core within this group who really want this place to work and we’ll continue to show that this weekend.
“It’s about getting everyone here game time during pre-season. We’ll let people play and we’ll see where we are.”
Warriors
15 Ben Howard
14 Josh Drauniniu
13 Max Stelling
12 Ravai Fatiaki
11 Sam Smith
10 Tiff Eden (VC)
9 Jean-Baptiste Bruzulier
1 Val Rapava Ruskin
2 Dan George
3 Mike Daniels
4 James Percival
5 Christian Scotland-Williamson
6 Mike Williams
7 Sam Betty
8 Gerrit-Jan van Velze (C)
Replacements
16 Niall Annett
17 Jack Cosgrove
18 Joe Rees
19 Dan Sanderson
20 Richard de Carpentier
21 Matt Cox
22 Jonny Arr
23 Ignacio Mieres
24 Andy Symons
25 Alex Grove
26 Josh Watkins