LOCK Graham Kitchener and openside flanker Sam Lewis will join Warriors’ 100 Club in Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership match against Newcastle Falcons at Kingston Park (kick-off 3pm).
The pair will reach a century of appearances at the same time and will have the honour of running out together before kick-off to mark the joint landmark.
They will become the 29th and 30th players to make 100 appearances for Warriors and join current players Chris Pennell (253), Nick Schonert (131), GJ van Velze (109), Niall Annett (107), Callum Black (103) and Matt Cox (102) in the exclusive club. Schonert, van Velze and Annett will have the chance to add to their tallies on Saturday.
Kitchener’s appearances have been split by eight years with Leicester Tigers where he racked up 175 appearances.
He returned to Sixways two years ago having made his Premiership debut as a replacement at Wasps in 2008 and he is still Warriors’ youngest-ever Premiership debutant.
Lewis joined Warriors from Ospreys in March 2015 and helped the club win the Greene King IPA Championship title that year.
A shoulder injury forced Lewis to miss the entire 2015/16 campaign, when Warriors returned to the Premiership but he has since become a consistent and dependable performer for the club.
Kitchener is one of five changes to the side that played against Leicester Tigers last week but his younger brother Andrew has been ruled out having taken a blow to the throat in that match.
Captain Ted Hill moves from the blindside flank to partner Kitchener in the second row with Tom Dodd coming into the back row in Hill’s normal position.
Beck Cutting will start at hooker and make his first appearance in three months having recovered from an ankle injury which he sustained in training.
Scotland international fly-half Duncan Weir, who came off the bench last week, starts with Noah Heward named on the left wing for his first start of the season.
Heward made his comeback from a serious hamstring injury off the bench against Leicester and will start against Newcastle as Harri Doel suffered sore calves last week.
Doel has been named on the bench this week along with props Ethan Waller and Nick Schonert who have recovered from injuries.
Warriors | 15 Jamie Shillcock, 14 Perry Humphreys, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Noah Heward, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Francois Hougaard, 1 Marc Thomas, 2 Beck Cutting, 3 Jay Tyack, 4 Ted Hill (C), 5 Graham Kitchener, 6 Tom Dodd, 7 Sam Lewis, 8 Matt Kvesic.
Replacements | 16 Niall Annett, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Nick Schonert, 19 Justin Clegg, 20 GJ van Velze, 21 Gareth Simpson, 22 Alex Hearle, 23 Harri Doel.
Unavailable players | Ashley Beck, Anton Bresler, Conor Carey, Matt Cox, Nick David, Andrew Kitchener, Marco Mama, George Merrick, Matt Moulds, Richard Palframan, Billy Searle.