London Irish fly-half Adrian Jarvis will make his first competitive appearance for the Exiles on Saturday when they face Harlequins at Twickenham.
Matt Garvey, who will make his first appearance for the club since January, will play alongside Nick Kennedy in the second-row. Dan Bowden will captain the side from inside centre alongside Jonathan Joseph.
England Saxons, David Paice and Topsy Ojo, will play at hooker and on the wing respectively. Club captain Clarke Dermody will start from the bench alongside new signings Alex Gray, Leo Halavatau, James Sandford and Steve Shingler.
"Twickenham is a great place to start the Aviva Premiership season and we hope to be playing in front of a huge crowd," said head coach Toby Booth.
"The younger members of the squad are excited by the challenge and looking forward to playing competitively. The World Cup period will be difficult for most clubs. It is never going to be easy when you lose close to 20 per cent of your squad. We have put our trust in our young players to deliver and they are eager to take the opportunity with both hands. We are excited by the challenge."
Meanwhile, there will be a number of familiar faces in Quins' line-up along with three new players named in their 23-man squad.
Eleven of the fifteen named by Conor O'Shea to start at Twickenham on Saturday also started in the Amlin Challenge Cup final in May. Thirteen of them are English qualified and nine are products of the Quins Academy.
Mike Brown will start at full-back, while Ugo Monye and Ross Chisholm will complete the back-three. Jordan Turner-Hall and George Lowe will look to continue their successful partnership in the centre outside Nick Evans at fly-half and Karl Dickson at scrum-half.
The front-row sees Joe Marler, Joe Gray and James Johnston packing down together, ably backed up by Ollie Kohn and George Robson in the engine room. In the back row, Tom Guest returns at number eight from his injury, picked up in the early part of 2011, alongside Captain Chris Robshaw and Will Skinner at openside.
On the bench, Tim Fairbrother, Charlie Matthews and Richard Bolt are looking to make their competitive debuts for Quins.
Form: London Irish have lost just four of their last 14 Premiership encounters with Harlequins, whilst the Exiles have not beaten Harlequins at Twickenham since 2006. London Irish concluded Aviva Premiership Rugby last season with a pair of defeats to Northampton and Leicester. The Exiles have won just one of their last five visits to Twickenham in all competitions: 33-16 over Saracens in last year's London Double Header. Harlequins, the reigning European Challenge Cup holders, won three of their last four matches in all competitions at the end of last campaign. Quins ended a four game losing run at "HQ" with their 28-18 victory over London Irish on 27 December.
The teams:
London Irish: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Daniel Bowden (capt), 11 Marland Yarde, 10 Adrian Jarvis, 9 Paul Hodgson, 8 Chris Hala'ufia, 7 Richard Thorpe, 6 Kieran Roche, 5 Matt Garvey, 4 Nick Kennedy, 3 Faan Rautenbach, 2 David Paice, 1 Max Lahiff.
Replacements: 16 James Buckland, 17 Clarke Dermody, 18 Leo Halavatau, 19 James Sandford, 20 Alex Gray, 21 Adam Thompstone, 22 Steve Shingler, 23 Darren Allinson.
Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Ross Chisholm, 13 George Lowe, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Karl Dickson. 8 Tom Guest, 7 Will Skinner, 6 Chris Robshaw (capt), 5 George Robson, 4 Ollie Kohn, 3 James Johnston, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Chris Brooker, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Tim Fairbrother, 19 Charlie Matthews, 20 Chris York, 21 Richard Bolt, 22 Rory Clegg, 23 Sam Smith.
Date: Saturday, September 3
Kick-off: 14:00 BST
Venue: Twickenham
Referee: Greg Gardner
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