Hooker Lee Mears will make his 250th appearance for Bath against London Wasps at the Rec in Saturday's Aviva Premiership clash.
Mears, who has played all his club rugby with the West Country side, has 42 caps for England and toured with the British and Irish Lions in 2009. He retired from international rugby this summer.
He will scrum down alongside Nathan Catt and David Wilson, with Stuart Hooper and Dominic Day continuing their second-row partnership.
Simon Taylor returns from injury and replaces Francois Louw, who is on international duty with South Africa. Taylor comes in on the blindside, with Carl Fearns switching to openside and Ben Skirving starting at number eight.
Olly Barkley is named once more at fly-half, alongside half-back partner Michael Claassens.
There are no changes to the backline that faced Worcester last weekend, with Tom Biggs and Kyle Eastmond out wide on the wings, Matt Banahan and Dan Hipkiss combining in the centres and Nick Abendanon at full-back.
"To make 250 appearances for a club is a great achievement in professional rugby, and it's a testament both to Lee's ability and his attitude as a player that he has reached it, as well as appearing for his country and the Lions," said Bath coach Gary Gold.
"Whilst we were pleased with the eventual result at Sixways last weekend, we were very frustrated to not perform the way we know we can and have in pre-season.
"Dai Young has done some excellent work at Wasps, and they will be looking to bounce straight back from the result against Quins. They outplayed the champions for large periods of the game, so we know they with challenge us all over the park, and it is a challenge we must rise to."
Meanwhile, centre Chris Bell makes his return in the London Wasps side which shows two changes.
Bell is a direct replacement for Italian centre Andrea Masi who hasn't quite recovered from a leg injury picked up at Twickenham last weekend, while England lock Tom Palmer replaces Joe Launchbury who shifts to the bench.
Bell made a huge impact for Wasps in the first few months of last season in the midfield only to succumb in November to an Achilles injury which saw him forced to sit out the remainder of the campaign.
He joins his younger brother Tommy in the squad, who is named on the bench.
Elsewhere, Charlie Davies replaces Nic Berry as scrum-half back-up.
Form: Bath won a 24-23 thriller at Worcester on Saturday with Olly Barkley kicking the winning penalty in the last minute, in a game where the lead changed hands four times in the last 13 minutes! London Wasps scored five tries but still lost to Harlequins at Twickenham on Saturday, and have now slipped to four straight Aviva Premiership Rugby defeats. Wasps' only away win in the Premiership since round one last season came at Worcester in late October. Both encounters last season went with home field advantage, whilst the Londoners have actually won on three of their last five visits to The Rec.
The teams:
Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Tom Biggs, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Matt Banahan, 11 Kyle Eastmond, 10 Olly Barkley, 9 Michael Claassens, 8 Ben Skirving, 7 Carl Fearns, 6 Simon Taylor, 5 Dominic Day, 4 Stuart Hooper (c), 3 David Wilson, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Nathan Catt.
Replacements: 16 Ross Batty, 17 Paul James, 18 Kane Palma-Newport, 19 Dave Attwood, 20 Josh Ovens, 21 Mark McMillan, 22 Ollie Devoto, 23 Jack Cuthbert.
London Wasps: 15 Hugo Southwell (c), 14 Christian Wade, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Chris Bell, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Nick Robinson, 9 Joe Simpson, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Jonathan Poff, 6 James Haskell, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Marco Wentzel, 3 Fabio Staibano, 2 Tom Lindsay, 1 Tim Payne.
Replacements: 16 T Rhys Thomas, 17 Simon McIntyre, 18 Zak Taulafo, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Ashley Johnson, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Tommy Bell, 23 Chris Mayor.
Date: Saturday, September 8
Venue: Recreation Ground, Bath
Kick-off: 14.15 BST (13.15 GMT)
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Comments
payve says...
Wasps by a score I think, they managed to put 40+ on last season's (largely unchanged) champs, no easy task. But then the only consistency they have managed in recent seasons has been pretty negative and involved collecting losing bonus points. Not too dissimilar to Bath though.
Posted 19:13 07th September 2012
Lucasrg says...
Too bad Masi is out for this one, but if the team work hard to solve last week's shambles, this could be a good win. I thought it was more a mental problem then anything else.
Go Wasps
Posted 19:07 07th September 2012
ArmchairGeneral says...
An important game.
Posted 17:33 07th September 2012
jamesliveinhope says...
@melkdave viewing things from the bottom of my half-"full" glass. I've always felt that round 1 is the sighter for everyone. Haven't been able to see either game but I am led to believe that both were very much of two halves with Worcester showing every trade-mark of a Hill team with Goode kicking like he's protecting a 2 score lead from the kick-off and lots of backs with cold hands. Wasps on the other hand are alleged to have thrown the kitchen sink at Quins for 40 mins and then ran out of gas.
I can't really call it because I don't think we saw the real Bath or Wasps last week BUT you would feel that both back lines have tries in them on a dry track.
Posted 14:49 07th September 2012
melkdave says...
Sorry APV1 ,but i feel Wasps will win agaist Bath it will no dought be hard fought ,and close for most of the match,but Wasps just look to have that little bit of an X factor again this season.as in seasons past.Not as good as the great team of the early noughties ,but the foundation looks to be there.Bath look flat and half a mtr off the imo,perhaps the injuries to the 1st choice FHs account for it ,but without Heathcoat and Donald they just look a tad flat imo.Im sure they will be alot better when they return ,and also imo time to find a replacment for M.Classans didnt really hit his best last season ,and looked the same against the warrors.
Posted 13:34 07th September 2012