And with an average age of just 24.2, it is the youngest they have ever put out in National One.
Hooker Max Hayman skippers the side with Ryan Lomas stepping up from the bench at tight-head, Paddy Harris completing the front row.
Fit-again Harry Stone is recalled in the engine room alongside Liam Elston, while the back row remains unchanged from defeat to Plymouth Albion – Aaron Tull, Ben Atkins and No. 8 Willo Bicknell ready for action at Westleigh Park.
Hodgson, Jones and Kalling-Smith start in backs
Scrum-half Ollie Hodgson, a try-scorer for the Development XV at Cambridge University on Wednesday night, takes the scrum-half jersey with Mike Cooke, now the only player to start every fixture this term, at stand-off.
Rowan Grundy switches from outside to inside centre to accommodate the return of Ellis Jones, the Welsh former Reading University student the oldest player in the starting line-up at just 28.
Axel Kalling-Smith returns from international duty with Sweden to take his spot on the right wing, while last week’s hat-trick hero Oli Rhoads – only the sixth Rams player to grab a Level Three treble – is on the other flank.
Zach Clow completes the side at full-back, while a youthful bench reduces the average age of the matchday squad to 23.7.
Potential debuts for teenagers Bicknell and Jackson
The first of two potential debutants, last year’s Berkshire Under 20s captain and hooker Harry Bicknell has been in terrific form for both the Development XV and on loan at Oxford Harlequins.
Prop George Breese is equally comfortable on either side of the scrum, while 19-year-old Paddy Jackson has caught the eye since arriving from Millfield School via South Africa in the summer.
Mikey Duda is back to form a 4-1 bench make-up, Royal Air Force scrum-half Sam Boxhall rounding out the visiting troops.
Louis Pereira and Andrew Lamb hit the road as travelling reserves.
Rams Team @ Leicester Lions
(15-9, 1-8) Clow, Kalling-Smith, Jones, Grundy, Rhoads, Cooke, Hodgson; Harris, Hayman ©, Lomas, Stone, Elston, Tull, Atkins, W Bicknell
Replacements: H Bicknell, Breese, Jackson, Duda, Boxhall
Travelling Reserves: Pereira, Lamb
