NICK Gardner gets a chance to stake his claim as Oxford University’s Varsity Match hooker when they host Russia at Iffley Road tomorrow (2).

The Oxford Harlequins man and former Magdalen College School pupil starts in what captain John Carter billed as the students’ full-strength side.

Carter, himself, returns at No 8, but fellow back-row forward Alex Waddingham will be out for a week with a bruised shoulder.

Former Chinnor prop Bob Baker comes in at tight-head, with double Blue Hamish Macdonald handed the No 1 shirt.

After taking on the Dark Blues, Russia, who are ranked 19th in the world, face USA and Canada in their autumn internationals.

Russia are coached by Kingsley Jones, who has been assisting London Welsh head coach Lyn Jones this season.

They include London Welsh lock Kirill Kulemin in their squad, but star player, wing Vasily Artemyev, is on the bench for Northampton against Leicester today.

Oxford University: Hudson*, Cho, Bramham-Law*, Turner*, Lamont, Marr*, Egerton*, Macdonald*, Gardner, Baker, Law*, Rowlands, Jones, Harris, Carter* (capt). Reps: Grounds, Direen, Rickner, Heathcote, Commins, Adams-Cairns, Boardman, Anderson*. *Denotes Blue.

Russia: from Babaev, Babkin, Boltenkov, Butenko, Fatakhov, Garbuzov, Gaysin, Gerasimov, Gresev, Klyuchnikov, Korshunov, Kulemin, Kvernadze, Makovetskiy, Ostroushko, Otrokov, Polivalov, Popov, Pronenko, Ryabov, Shcherban, Simplikevich, Sugrobov, Temnov, Trishin, G Tsnobiladze, V Tsnobiladze, Vengerov, Volkov, Voytov, Zykov.