The Western Force have named their team to take on the South China Tigers in the next Rapid Rugby fixture on Sunday.
USA international and Force veteran Marcel Brace will skipper the side for the clash at Aberdeen Sports Ground in Hong Kong.
The forwards remain unchanged but the Force backline has had a re-shuffle from team that ground out a 7-3 over the Asia Pacific Dragons in Singapore last weekend.
Clay Uyen comes into fullback and Issak Fines-Leleiwasa has replaced Ian Prior at no.9, with the skipper out injured.
“While it is unfortunate to have Ian out injured, we have a number of strong leaders in our group and this is a really good opportunity for Marcel to lead the team,” coach Tim Sampson said.
“He is someone that the guys love working with and playing under, so he will do a great job.”
Future Force recruit Ben Grant and Wests Scarborough product Angus Taylor are potential debutants for the Force after being named on the bench.
“It’s important to get consistency upfront in specific positions and build combinations which will only assist in gaining dominance at the set pieces. We are certainly expecting a contest up front this week however believe it is an area of our game where we can get reward,” Sampson said.
South China Tigers v Western Force will kick off at Sunday 4pm (AWST), and be streamed on southchinatigers.com
Western Force
Out: Andrew Ready, Ian Prior, Leon Power, Masivesi Dakuwaqa.
1.Chris HEIBERG, 2.Heath TESSMANN, 3.Kieran LONGBOTTOM, 4.Johan BARDOUL, 5.Fergus LEE WARNER, 6.Henry STOWERS, 7.Tevin FERRIS, 8.Brynard STANDER, 9.Issak FINES-LELEIWASA, 22.Aj ALATIMU, 11.Brad LACEY, 12.Henry TAEFU, 13.Marcel BRACHE (C), 14.Rodney DAVIES, 15.Clay UYEN
Reserves: 16.Feleti KAITU’U, 17.Markus VANZATI, 18.Tom SHEMINANT, 20.Ben GRANT, 19.Chris ALCOCK, 21.Angus TAYLOR, 24.Rodney IONA, 23.Jack MCGREGOR
South China Tigers1.Benjamin HIGGINS, 2.Dayne JANS, 3.Tau KOLOMATANGI, 4.Fin FIELD, 5.Kyle SULLIVAN, 6.James CUNNINGHAM, 7.James SAWYER, 8.Luke VAN DER SMIT, 9.Liam SLATEM (C), 10.Matthew ROSSLEE, 11.Harry SAYER, 12.Tom HILL, 13.Ben AXTEN-BARRETT, 14.Tom VARNDELL, 15.Jack NEVILLE
Reserves: 16.Mitch ANDREWS, 17.Callum MCFEAT-SMITH, 18.Faizal SOLOMONA, 19.Kane BOUCAUT, 20.Josh DOWSING, 21.Bryn PHILLIPS, 22.Sami NAGAVESI, 23.Glyn HUGHES
