Premiership: Harlequins v Worcester Warriors (Sat)

Harlequins make 13 changes for bottom club Worcester’s visit to The Stoop.

Warriors return to action after a three-week break following the 62-14 hammering by Northampton on 27 March.

Quins old boy Chris Ashton starts his ban, so wing Alex Hearle makes a first Premiership appearance of the season.

Fellow wing Tom Howe is also out, having taken a bang to the hip in training last week, but Jamie Shillcock returns at full-back and South Africa international Francois Venter will partner England’s Ollie Lawrence at centre.

Alex Dombrandt returns to captain Quins from number eight, with England’s Danny Care restored at scrum-half, alongside Marcus Smith, Mike Brown at full-back and an all-international front row of Joe Marler, Scott Baldwin and Wilco Louw.

Form guide

Worcester remain without an on-field victory since the opening day of the Premiership campaign but they did do the double over Harlequins last season.

In fact, they have lost just once to Quins in the Premiership since 2017, the 47-33 defeat at The Stoop in February 2019. And they have won both of their last two visits to The Stoop – beating Quins in November 2019 and London Irish in September.

The two clubs should have met on New Year’s Day, but the match was cancelled because of Covid-19 – the second of Worcester’s two four-point off-field ‘wins’.

Harlequins: Brown; Green, Marchant, Esterhuizen, Murley; Smith, Care; Marler, Baldwin, Louw, Symons, Lamb, Lawday, Evans, Dombrandt (capt).

Replacements: Gray, Els, Collier, Tizard, Kenningham, Landajo, Herron, Northmore.

Worcester: Shillcock; Humphreys, Lawrence, Venter, Hearle; Searle, Hougaard; Waller, Annett, Schonert , Batley, G Kitchener, Hill (capt), Kvesic, Van Velze.

Replacements: Miller, Thomas, Palframan, Bresler, Dodd, Simpson, Beck, Doel.

Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys (RFU).