SIX internationals, including former Wales captain Ieuan Evans, will grace Iffley Road tonight when Oxford University begin their home programme with an attractive looking match against Bath.

Such is Bath's great strength in depth that none of the six stars on duty tonight could get in the club's line-up for their Allied Dunbar Premirership match with London Irish on Saturday.

Evans is joined behind the scrum by former England full back Jon Callard, and Scotland scrum half Andy Nichol.

Up front, Bath boast former Scotland prop Dave Hilton, England hooker Mark Regan and veteran lock Nigel Redman.

It's a line-up that would be a match for all but the strongest of club sides, so the Dark Blues face an awesome test.

The students, who suffered a narrow defeat at Gloucester last week, following a successful four-match tour to South Afr- ica, give a debut to hooker Bede O'Connor, who has played top grade rugby in Sydney. The Blues include two internationals of their own in Nathan Ashley (Hong Kong) and Kurt Shuman (United States).

"It's our tough test, but all our team will relish the chance of playing against such an array of talent," said Oxford's director of coaching Steve Hill. Kick-off is at 7.30pm.

Oxford Univ: N Ashley, N Booth, K Shuman, J Kinniburgh, N Humphries, R Governey, S Barry, A Collins, B O'Connor, A Reuben, A Roberts, M Mills, N Celliers, C Lavin (capt), M Challendor.

Bath: J Callard, I Evans, M Tindell, T Adebayo, P Simms, R Butland, A Nichol, D Hilton, M Regan, M Street, S Borthwick, N Redman, R Earnshaw, D Jones, M Jones.

OXFORD University Under 21s went down 11-3 to an older, heavier Rosslyn Park Development XV on Saturday.

Henry Tarr, a fly-half replacement for John Claughton who was injured when kicked on the ground, put the students ahead with a penalty in the second half, before Park scored two penalties and an unconverted try.

Previous sport story

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.