ALLAN Purchase says Oxford Harlequins know how important tomorrow’s clash at fellow strugglers Swindon is to their survival hopes.

Quins sit second bottom in South West 1 East, a place and one point behind this weekend’s opponents.

They are also seven points from safety, but have games in hand over a number of sides above them.

A frozen pitch last week prevented Quins from building on back-to-back wins.

However, captain Purchase is upbeat of returning from Wiltshire with a victory.

He said: “This game is huge, especially having the match called off last week.

“It’s taken that momentum out of us a little bit, but we’re training well and we’ve taken a big step forward since Christmas.

“Before that we had a few injuries and people unavailable, but we seem to be a bit more together now.

“We’re in a relegation scrap and need to get ourselves out of it.”

Prop Ollie Barlow starts at tight-head, Jack Avery comes in at fly half and Ollie Jenner returns at centre.

Elsewhere, Banbury host Old Centralians, Witney take on Reading Abbey and Grove welcome Maidenhead.

Leaders Chinnor travel to bottom side Exmouth in National League 2 South.

Former Newcastle Falcons academy player Roddy Giles starts at fly half, in place of Basil Strang.

Director of rugby Matt Williams said: “Roddy has been knocking on the door in training and for the second team – it’s only right he gets his chance.”

However, former London Welsh hooker Koree Britton, who has mainly been used as a replacement, will not feature after being loaned to Aviva Premiership side Wasps.

Williams said: “Wasps approached us to take Koree for the LV= Cup and as it does not affect our starting XV I had no issue with it.”

CJ Osazuwa is injured (broken rib), so Richard Thorpe starts and Ross Parkins returns to the bench.

Alan Awcock comes in at inside centre as Henley Hawks travel to Bury St Edmunds.

Meanwhile, the south Oxfordshire club have received an apology from the RFU South West referees advisory body after a try was falsely awarded during their defeat at Exmouth two weeks ago.

The top two sides meet in the BB&O Championship as leaders Littlemore bid to preserve their 100 per cent record when they visit Wheatley.

Fly half Andy Willis is back in contention for the home side, but Josh Hillsdon is unavailable.

TOMORROW’S TEAMS

Chinnor (v Exmouth, away): Goss, Broughton, Barnes, Armitage, Hibberd, Giles, Goodfellow, Cano, Townsend, Tyack, Hannay, Manning, Thorpe, Bradley, Burns. Reps: Price, Darlington, Parkins, Strang, Lamont.

Henley (v Bury St Edmunds, away): Butler, Andre, O’Neill, Awcock, Perry, Comben, Jackson, Cook, Philpott, Manning, Clements, Hyde, Hall, Bell, Lowe. Reps: Emery, Hadfield, Albon, Morrison, Hayhow.

Banbury (v Old Centralians, home): Joe Mills, O’Shea, Goode, Briggs, Manley, Stoop, E Phillips, Isham, Ding, Key, Harden, Jacob Mills, Chilvers, Sam Mills, C Phillips. Reps: Johnson, Brand.

Oxford Harlequins (v Swindon, away): Van Dijk, Crowe, Robinson, Jenner, Fisilau, Avery, Fairburn, Edney, Tierney, Barlow, Neal, Purchase, Milton, Ward, Alston. Reps: from Farahani, Ojo, Taylor, Wilson, Davies.

Wheatley (v Littlemore, home): Acklam, Mitchel, Gabbidon, Banton, Gibb, Neal, Bland, Atkinson, Laman, Taylor, Willis, Rule, Hobdell, Downer, Fraser, Hook, Chadbone, Petterson.