The Welsh All Blacks will be breaking new ground as they have never played Stirling County before. They experiment with outside-half David Langdon in the full back role in which he has shown distinct promise recently with Gareth King switching to the wing instead of Jason Howells who suffered a nasty neck injury last Saturday. Chris Morgans, scorer of a first half hat trick of tries last week, again starts with Ben Jones on the bench.
With captain Gareth Gravell joining the injured list, Neath shuffle their pack with prop Nicky Downs returning to lead the side. Aled Williams gets an overdue start at hooker while hard-working lock Euros Evans is rested to give Lee Williams a chance to impress and Leon Ward comes into the back-row.
Neath coach Patrick Horgan said, “For the first hour last week we played some good rugby, carving out five tries which is our best this season. That was dry-weather rugby though and the forecast suggests light rain for Scotland.
“We don’t know too much about Stirling County so it is a bit of a step into the unknown but they, like ourselves, will be representing their nation with pride.
“We have had some good wins on the road in this competition – at places like Heriot’s, Ulster and Bristol – and the challenge of playing against new teams with different styles can only be good for us.
Horgan added: “This is the chance for us to kick-start our season. We want to get back to winning ways as quickly as possible.
“The British and Irish Cup is a special competition for us. It’s the biggest competition that some of these boys have ever played in. We don’t take any games lightly and it’ll be a tough challenge up there. We’re all looking forward to it.”
Neath assistant coach Leigh Davies added: “It’s a fresh challenge and it will give us a different environment from the Welsh leagues – different style of play, different referees, different interpretations. It’ll be a good exercise for us as a group to go away and be in each other’s company. We didn’t have a great pre-season together so this will be a bit of a bonding exercise where we go away, play a team we don’t know and enjoy each other’s company.
Neath 15 David Langdon; 14 Elliot Jones, 13 Ryan Evans, 12 Kyle Davies, 11 Gareth King; 10 Jonny Davies, 9 Chris Morgans; 1 Nicky Downs (captain), 2 Aled Williams, 3 James Reeves; 4 Jonny Griffiths, 5 Lee Williams; 6 Leon Ward, 8 Rhys Jones, 7 Emyr Williams
Replacements – 16 Owain Ford, 17 Rhodri Clancy, 18 Alun Wyn Davies, 19 Euros Evans, 20 Matthew Rees, 21 Ben Jones, 22 Kevin James
