Second row Nile Dacres and Polish international wing Tom Pozniak go from the off as Morgan MacRae takes a spot on the bench, his former Henley Hawks teammate Tom Vooght returning to the starting line-up for what will be a 157th Rams’ appearance for the flanker who began his rugby career as a four-year-old at OBR.

New captain and last season’s National One top try-scorer Max Hayman is sandwiched by Paddy Harris and James Baker in the front row, the latter set for a record-extending 417th first-team league cap, with Dacres partnered by another centurion, Connor Stapley, in the engine room.

Vooght returns at open-side, James McRae on the opposite flank of the scrum as former skipper Robbie Stapley takes the No. 8 jersey looking for the try which would take him to a century of first-team league efforts.

Scrum-half Ed Hoadley is partnered by Fraser Honey – outstanding in the pre-season victories at Aberavon and Chinnor – in looking to set the three-quarters run free.

Rowan Grundy starts at inside centre with Ellis Jones joining him in midfield, Rams then making history at the start of their Centenary Season with two international wings starting in the form of Pozniak and Swedish ace Axel Kalling-Smith for the first time.

Man-of-the-match at Chinnor, Zach Clow, completes the side at full back, with two props leading the bench in the form of Ant Marris and Ryan Lomas.

Former Wales Sevens’ hooker MacRae, also capable of playing in the back row, is the other forwards replacement, while Drew Humberstone begins an eighth campaign at Old Bath Road ready to cover a variety of positions across the three-quarters.

The final spot in the matchday 20 goes to another international Sevens ace, Olise Monye, the ex-Oratory School scrum-half who repeatedly showed himself as a super-sub during last season’s runners-up finish.

Five travelling reserves are named in the form of prop Liam Bishop, hooker Brad Clements, impressive 19-year-old back row Harry Stone, Jamaica Sevens’ wing Jack Rampton and full-back/fly-half Andrew Lamb.

Rams Team v Darlington Mowden Park (15-9; 1-8)

Clow, Pozniak, Jones, Grundy, Kalling-Smith, Honey, Hoadley; Harris, Hayman ©, Baker, Dacres, C Stapley, McRae, Vooght, R Stapley

Replacements: Marris, Lomas, MacRae, Humberstone, Monye.

Travelling Reserves: Bishop, Clements, Stone, Rampton, Lamb.