Carl Kirwan makes his first appearance of the season for London Welsh’s daunting test against second-placed Northampton Saints at Oxford’s Kassam Stadium tomorrow (2.30pm).

Kirwan takes the No 7 jersey as head coach Justin Burnell makes four changes, one positional following last week’s 25-6 home defeat byLeicester Tigers, which leaves the Exiles 11 points adrift at the bottom of the table.

Lachlan McCaffrey moves from openside flanker to No 8 in place of the injured Opeti Fonua, allowing Kirwan to come into the back row.

Dean Schofield replaces Matt Corker to partner James Down in the second row.

Latest Sport news

In the backs, Paul Rowley comes in at scrum half with Rob Lewis named on the bench.

Olly Barkley has not recovered from a back injury, and does not even make it as a replacement.

This means that assistant coach Gordon Ross will continue at fly half.

Burnell said: “We saw glimpses of improvement last week against Leicester, which is what we spoke about after the Wasps game, and we’re looking to see a further improvement.

“Continuous improvement is what we’re after.

“You can definitely see why Northampton are the current champions and top of the Aviva Premiership.

“They’re a fantastic team across the board and it’s a massive task ahead of us, but we’re looking forward to it.”

The last time Saints visited the Kassam Stadium, in April 2013, two tries from now London Welsh captain Tom May in a 31-14 win for Northampton confirmed the Exiles’ relegation to the Championship.

Saints have named an unchanged starting line-up from their rain-soaked victory over Saracens.

There are, however, alterations to the matchday 23, with a trio of returnees among the replacements.

Kahn Fotuali’i and Ken Pisi are back following their autumn series with Samoa, while Sam Dickinson is in line for his first appearance of the season, having recovered from a neck injury.

  •  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.