Olly Barkley will captain London Welsh at his former club Bath in the Aviva Premiership on Saturday.

The fly half takes over the armband with regular skipper Tom May dropping to the bench.

Head coach Justin Burnell makes five changes from the side who were thrashed by Exeter Chiefs last week.

Nic Reynolds starts at outside centre with Ollie Stedman coming in as No 8 in a move which sees Lachlan McCaffrey switch to blindside flanker and Pete Browne to the second row in place of Dean Schofield.

Nathan Morris is named at hooker in place of Koree Britton.

“We were bitterly disappointed after last week’s result against Exeter,” Burnell said.

“The performance wasn’t the London Welsh I know, it was unacceptable.

“We really let down our supporters, who are very loyal and a great bunch, and we let down Kelvin (Bryon, the club’s main backer), who has continuously been a huge supporter of the club.

“This week has been purely focused on rectifying those errors and making sure there will be a wholehearted performance on Saturday.

“Our environment is all about honesty and there have been some honest conversations this week.

“Hopefully on Saturday we’ll see a far better performance – we don’t want to feel like that again.”

Welsh’s last visit to the Recreation Ground ended in a 40-25 defeat in March 2013. Seb Jewell scored the Exiles’ solitary try with Alex Davies kicking 20 points.

Chris Cook, who was on loan at London Welsh last season, makes his first start for Bath.

Cook comes in to play at scrum half, partnering George Ford, with second row Dave Attwood and blindside Carl Fearns starting after being among the replacements in the opening-round win over Sale Sharks.

Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.