Preview: London Irish v Brive
Delon Armitage returns to the London Irish squad for Saturday's Heineken Cup clash with Brive at Madejski Stadium.
Delon Armitage returns to the London Irish squad for Saturday's Heineken Cup clash with Brive at Madejski Stadium.
The London Irish and England full back, who has made a full recovery from the injury he suffered in the home match with Gloucester on 13th September, is named among the replacements for Saturdays important round four match.
Also making a welcome return from injury are Faan Rautenbach and George Stowers.
The Exiles make one change to the starting XV that played in France last Saturday. Alfredo Lalanne, the Argentine international starts at scrum-half in place of Paul Hodgson who has failed a fitness test.
Nick Kennedy, who made his 150th senior appearance for the club in the away match with Harlequins, continues alongside club captain Bob Casey in the second row.
Meanwhile, the Brive backline has a very Anglophone look to it, featuring imports Ronnie Cooke, Jamie Noon and Lachlan Mackay.
French international Alexis Pallison is missing due to injury while England fly-half Andy Goode is out with appendicitis.
Hooker Guillaume Ribes and lock Arnaud Méla have been slapped with hefty suspensions by the European Cup disciplinary commission in the fallout of last week's bad tempered 36-3 loss to the Exiles.
The teams:
London Irish:15 Peter Hewat, 14 Tom Homer, 13 Elvis Seveali'i, 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 John Rudd, 10 Chris Malone, 9 Alfredo Lalanne, 8 Chris Hala'Ufia 7 Steffon Armitage, 6 Richard Thorpe, 5 Bob Casey (captain), 4 Nick Kennedy, 3 Paulica Ion 2 David Paice, 1 Clarke Dermody.
Replacements: 16 Danie Coetzee, 17 Dan Murphy, 18Faan Rautenbach, 19 Kieran Roche, 20 George Stowers, 21 Delon Armitage, 22 Jamie Lennard, 23 Ryan Lamb
Brive: 15 Nicolas Jeanjean, 14 Ronnie Cooke, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Lachlan Mackay, 11 Guillaume Namy, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Jean-Baptiste Pejoine, 8 Fabien Domingo, 7 Simon Azoulai, 6 Vincent Forgues, 5 Damien Browne, 4 Retief Uys, 3 Scott Zimmermann, 2 Steve Thompson, 1 Davit Kinchagishvili.
Replacements: 16 Jean-Philippe Bonrepaux, 17 Pablo Henn, 18 Thibault Dubarry, 19 Antoine Claassen, 20 Shaun Perry, 21 Horacio Agulla, 22 Scott Spedding, 23 Pat Barnard.
Date: Saturday, December 19
Venue: Madejski Stadium
Kick-off:15.00 GMT
Referee: James Jones (Wales)
Assistant referees: Phil Fear (Wales), Huw Griffiths (Wales)
Assessor: Gianni Romano (Italy)