New signing Noah Heward is set to make his Bristol Bears debut on Friday night when the club take on Cardiff Rugby in an Anglo-Welsh friendly fixture organised to fill a gap in the fixture list.
The game has been organised to replace Bristol's scheduled game against Worcester Warriors who have gone into administration and subsequently been suspended and relegated from the Gallagher Premiership.
The loss of the fixture was expected to cost the Bears in the region of £300,000 hence the move to arrange home and away fixtures with the United Rugby Championship side.
Heward, 22, arrived last month having found himself out of work when Worcester's entire playing squad were made redundant. Before Warriors fate was sealed he made three substitute Premiership appearances this season.
With Bristol looking to rediscover some form having lost their last five Premiership games, and with a sell-out game against South Africa on the horizon next week, lock Joe Joyce returns from injury to skipper the side.
Winger Gabriel Ibitoye will make his second appearance for the club having made his debut in Saturday's 25-10 home defeat to Saracens while Welshman Ioan Lloyd lines up at fly-half.
The game kicks off at 7.45pm on Friday and Bristol Live will be providing live play-by-play updates from the match as normal.
Bristol Bears: 15. Noah Heward, 14. Deago Bailey, 13. Joe Jenkins, 12. Harry Ascherl, 11. Gabriel Ibitoye, 10. Ioan Lloyd, 9. Will Porter; 1. Aristot Benz-Salomon, 2. Jake Kerr, 3. Jonathan Benz-Salomon, 4. Ed Holmes, 5. Joe Joyce (c), 6. Joe Batley, 7. Fitz Harding, 8. Magnus Bradbury.
Replacements: 16. Harry Thacker, 17. Yann Thomas, 18. Jay Tyack, 19. Dan Thomas, 20. Sam Lewis, 21. Andy Uren, 22. James Williams, 23. Rich Lane
Cardiff Rugby: 15 Cameron Winnett; 14 Jason Harries, 13 Mason Grady, 12 Max Llewellyn, 11 Theo Cabango; 10 Jarrod Evans, 9 Lloyd Williams; 1 Brad Thyer, 2 Liam Belcher (capt.), 3 Keiron Assiratti, 4 Matthew Screech, 5 Rory Thornton, 6 Shane Lewis-Hughes, 7 Ellis Jenkins, 8 James Ratti
Replacements: 16 Efan Daniel, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Will Davies-King, 19 Teddy Williams, 20 Gwilym Bradley, 21 James Botham, 22 Ellis Bevan, 23 Ben Burnell, 24 Harri Millard, 25 Aled Summerhill.
