Northampton Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder has made wholesale changes to his side for the EDF Energy Cup clash against Bristol.
Following two tough away matches at Saracens and Leicester, Mallinder has awarded Saints debuts to centre Nils
Mordt and No.8 Rob Milligan, who came through the ranks at Old Scouts.
Barry Evritt makes his first start of the season, while Lee Dickson returns at scrum-half.
Several more players could also make their first-team bow should they come off the bench and, director of rugby Mallinder says that all of the players involved are eager to show what they can do on a big stage.
"Competition for starting places has been fierce all season," he said today. "All of the players have trained well.
"We have an unbeaten home record that we are proud of and I want this to continue on Saturday.
"The EDF Energy Cup is an important competition for us. But we are also in the middle of a tough run of matches and have to manage our squad, particularly after two physically demanding encounters at Saracens and Leicester."
Saints15 Paul Diggin
14 Chris Ashton
13 Chris Mayor
12 Nils Mordt
11 Sean Lamont
10 Barry Everitt
9 Lee Dickson
1 Soane Tonga'uiha
2 Paul Shields
3 Barry Stewart
4 Alex Rae (capt)
5 Matt Lord
6 Courtney Lawes
7 Ben Lewitt
8 Rob Milligan
Replacements16 Joe Gray
17 Jon Vickers
18 Ben Broster
19 James Cannon
20 Liam Neale
21 John Brake
22 Nick Greenhalgh
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