With Keith Wood on World Cup qualifying duty with Ireland, Tani Fuga returns from a hand injury to take his place in the front row alongside Jason Leonard and Laurent Gomez.

In the second row, Alex Codling returns after missing the games against Leicester and Leeds with a hamstring injury. He takes the place of Karl Rudzki, who drops to the bench.

Also back from injury and filling the scrum half spot on the bench is Nick Duncombe.

"After the disappointment of our performance last Saturday, we are looking forward to the opportunity to get back onto the pitch at the Stoop," said Mark Evans, NEC Harlequins Chief Executive. "We know that we face a difficult challenge against a strong London Irish team, who had a good victory against Saracens last Sunday, but we can perform much better than we did last week and it is time that we did so in front of our loyal supporters."

The full team is as follows:

15. Nathan Williams
14. Matt Moore
13. Will Greenwood
12. Viliame Satala
11. Ben Gollings
10. Paul Burke
9. Scott Bemand
1. Jason Leonard (Capt.)
2. Tani Fuga
3. Laurent Gomez
4. Bill Davison
5. Alex Codling
6. Ace Tiatia
7. Pat Sanderson
8. Tony Diprose

Replacements:
16. Bruce Starr
17. Karl Rudzki
18. Jim Evans
19. Luke Sherriff
20. Nick Duncombe
21. David Slemen
22. Rob Jewell