Quins v Bulls: Teams

Harlequins v Bradford, Twickenham Stoop, Saturday 3pm

Last updated: 7th August 2009

Quins v Bulls: Teams

Purdham: Quins return

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Harlequins skipper Rob Purdham returns to the squad for the visit of Bradford on Saturday.

The loose forward has been sidelined since undergoing surgery to remove a blood clot on his wrist in June.

Chad Randall is also in contention to return after a knee injury.

But David Howell will miss the game after being injured in Thursday's training session, whilst Chad Robinson has been forced to make a late withdrawal due to a knee injury.

Robinson will be replaced by 21-year-old Lamont Bryan. The centre made five appearance for Harlequins last season and played a part in their memorable victory over Leeds Rhinos. This year he has been playing at reserve grade

Quins coach Brian McDermott is delighted to have his captain back in the team, commenting: "We've already started showing signs of momentum swinging in our direction and having Rob back in the team will add to that."

Harlequins ended a run of six defeats with victory over Bradford last weekend and are looking for back-to-back wins over the Bulls.

Bradford prop Sam Burgess returns to the squad in place of Elliott Whitehead.

Bulls coach Steve McNamara insists last Sunday's 22-14 defeat at Odsal will have no bearing on the match at the Stoop six days later. He told the club's website: "We played six days ago and we saw some things they did to us and vice versa and whilst it won't have a bearing on this week's game we are aware of each other's threats.

"They got us with a couple of inside balls, which created a couple of tries for them and they were pretty methodical in that they didn't threaten too much in yardage they just completed well - I think it was eighteen out of nineteen sets in the second half and we need to throw a bit more quality at them this week."

Harlequins 19-man squad: Lamont Bryan, Luke Dorn, Ryan Esders, Matt Gafa, Luke Gale, Jason Golden, Gareth Haggerty, Daniel Heckenberg, Ben Kaye, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Chris Melling, Danny Orr, Rob Purdham, Chad Randall, Will Sharp, Karl Temata, Danny Ward, Jon Wells, Luke Williamson.

Bradford 19-man squad: Paul Sykes, Jamie Langley, Rikki Sheriffe, Craig Kopczak, James Donaldson, Nick Scruton, Steve Menzies, Terry Newton, Wayne Godwin, Matt Cook, Dave Halley, Chris Nero, Andy Lynch, Glenn Morrison, Semi Tadulala, Sam Burgess, Michael Worrincy, Michael Platt, Paul Deacon.