FULL-BACK Chris Pennell will make his 250th appearance for Warriors in Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership match against Leicester Tigers at Mattioli Woods Welford Road (kick-off 3pm).
Pennell is just the second Warriors players to reach the landmark with only lock Craig Gillies, who made 288 appearances between 2002 and 2013, ahead of him.
Pennell, 33, made his debut against Bath in 2007 and the highlights of his illustrious career include being capped by England on the tour of New Zealand in 2014 and scoring two tries in the dramatic victory over Bristol Bears in the 2015 Championship final second leg.
Pennell will have the honour of leading out Warriors at Leicester in a side that will captained by Matt Kvesic.
As part of a rotation policy to ensure player welfare during a demanding run of nine consecutive Premiership matches, Club Captain Ted Hill, scrum-half Francois Hougaard, loosehead prop Ethan Waller and lock Justin Clegg will be used as impact players off the bench this week.
With Billy Searle sidelined by a lacerated thigh muscle sustained against Exeter Chiefs, Duncan Weir will start at fly-half with his fellow Scotland international Cornell du Preez brought it into the back-row. Marco Mama switches from number eight to blindside to accommodate du Preez.
Experienced loosehead prop Marc Thomas will make his first start in the Premiership since he joined Warriors from Harlequins during the close season.
Scrum-half Gareth Simpson will make his first Premiership start of the season after five appearances off the bench and Anton Bresler will renew his second row partnership with Graham Kitchener.
Warriors | 15 Chris Pennell, 14 Nick David, 13 Oli Morris, 12 Ashley Beck, 11 Perry Humphreys, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Gareth Simpson, 1 Marc Thomas, 2 Niall Annett, 3 Nick Schonert, 4 Anton Bresler, 5 Graham Kitchener, 6 Marco Mama, 7 Matt Kvesic (C), 8 Cornell du Preez.
Replacements | 16 Beck Cutting, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Richard Palframan, 19 Justin Clegg, 20 Ted Hill, 21 Sam Lewis, 22 Francois Hougaard, 23 Jamie Shillcock.
Unavailable | Conor Carey, Matt Cox, Tom Dodd, Noah Heward, Lewis Holsey, Andrew Kitchener, Matt Moulds, Melani Nanai, Billy Searle, Matti Williams. International duty | Ollie Lawrence.