Worcester v Bristol: Teams

Pat Sanderson will make his 100th appearance for Worcester when he leads out the hosts against Bristol at Sixways on Saturday.

The talismanic skipper, who joined the Warriors in 2004, will reach his century in what is a crucial clash at the bottom of the table.

The Warriors are boosted by Chris Latham's return, the full-back going straight back into the starting XV after recovering from a knee injury. Loan signing Eoghan Hickey moves to fly-half.

Chris Pennell has also been passed fit along with fellow winger Rico Gear, who was taken off as a precaution against Bourgoin.

Worcester director of rugby Mike Ruddock also welcomes back Matt Mullan, Greg Rawlinson and Aleki Lutui into the pack.

Hobson's choice

Bristol coach Richard Hill has prop Jason Hobson available for the must-win clash.

Hobson has not played since November after being sidelined with a neck injury. However he has been declared fit to join Alex Clarke and Mark Regan in a new-look front row.

There are also returns for Mariano Sambucetti, Alfie To'oala and Redford Pennycook in the forwards, while Lee Robinson comes into the backline.

Having performed well after the interval against London Irish and Northampton, Hill is looking for his side to come storming out of the blocks.

"What we have to do is take our two second-half performances against London Irish in the Guinness Premiership and Northampton Saints in the European Challenge Cup and start well against Worcester. We cannot afford to start slowly," he said.

"We've started so poorly in our past three games that the game has effectively been over by half time and then you're playing catch up in the second half. We can't afford that to happen at Sixways.

"We've been working on our intensity this week by introducing more contact into training. It's a balancing act and sometimes you have to risk picking up an injury in training in order to up the physicality. So, we've had several full on contact sessions and I think that's done us a lot of good."

Worcester: 15 Chris Latham, 14 Rico Gear, 13 Dale Rasmussen, 12 Sam Tuitupou, 11 Chris Pennell, 10 Eoghan Hickey, 9 Matt Powell, 8 Kai Horstmann, 7 Pat Sanderson (c), 6 Netani Talei, 5 Craig Gillies, 4 Greg Rawlinson, 3 Tevita Taumoepeau, 2 Aleki Lutui, 1 Matt Mullan.
Replacements: 16 Chris Horsman, 17 Chris Fortey, 18 Will Bowley, 19 Matt Cox, 20 Ryan Powell, 21 Joe Carlisle, 22 Hal Luscombe.

Bristol: 15 Luke Arscott, 14 Lee Robinson, 13 Neil Brew, 12 Luke Eves, 11 David Lemi, 10 Ed Barnes, 9 Shaun Perry (c), 8 Dan Ward-Smith , 7Redford Pennycook, 6 Alfie To'oala, 5 Robert Sidoli, 4 Mariano Sambucetti, 3 Jason Hobson, 2 Mark Regan, 1 Alex Clarke.
Replacements: 16 Scott Linklater, 17 Darren Crompton, 18 Nathan Budgett, 19 James Phillips, 20 Graeme Beveridge, 21 Adrian Jarvis, 22 Greg Barden.