Strong centre to Irish line-up

Published 5 Feb 2010 13:02 0 Comments

STAR centres Elvis Seveali'i and Seilala Mapusua make their return to the London Irish team for tomorrow's clash with Worcester Warriors in the LV= Cup (3pm ko).

Last weekend's defeat to Harlequins all but ended the Exiles' hopes of progressing to the semi-finals of the Anglo-Welsh Cup.

So head coach Toby Booth is using the encounter at Sixways this weekend to get some key members of his side up to speed ahead of their return to Premiership action.

There are a total of six personnel and two positional changes for the dead rubber.

In the front row the former Springbok Faan Rautenbach comes in at tight head prop in place of Paulica Ion while in the second row Matt Garvey starts alongside Andy Perry.

Gary Johnson switches from the second to the back row where he starts at blindside flanker while Kieran Roche takes over at No 8.

Among the backs the experienced John Rudd starts at left wing, outside the formidable centre pairing of Seveali'i and Mapusua. Player/coach Mike Catt, the rested Sailosi Tagicakibau and Jonathan Joseph (who is on England under-20s duty) are the men to miss out.

Booth explained: "Having seven players on international duty gives us a great opportunity to demonstrate the strength of our squad and continue to grow our talented Academy players.

"Last week we saw excellent performances from Matt Garvey and Jamie Gibson and I'm sure we'll see more of the same at Sixways.

"Matches with Worcester are always dogged and competitive at their home stadium. We expect the Warriors to be preparing themselves for a good run into their upcoming Guinness Premiership fixtures so supporters are promised an entertaining match with good rugby from both teams."

Team: 15 Peter Hewat (c); 14 Topsy Ojo; 13 Elvis Seveali'i; 12 Seilala Mapusua; 11 John Rudd; 10 Ryan Lamb; 9.Alfredo Lalanne; 1 Dan Murphy; 2 James Buckland; 3 Faan Rautenbach; 4 Matt Garvey; 5 Andy Perry; 6 Gary Johnson; 7 Richard Thorpe; 8 Kieran Roche.

Replacements: 16 Danie Coetzee; 17 Clarke Dermody; 18 James Tideswell; 19 Kieran Low; 20 Jamie Gibson; 21 Chris Malone; 22 Peter Richards; 23 Jamie Lennard.

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