WORCESTER Warriors have rung the changes for tonight’s crucial Greene King IPA Championship play-off semi-final second leg against London Scottish at Sixways (7.45pm).

Director of rugby Dean Ryan has made seven changes to Warriors starting lineup which holds a narrow five-point advantage after edging to a 27-22 victory in last Saturday’s first leg.

A club spokesman said the changes were due to the “squad rotation” policy adopted by Warriors throughout the season.

Scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Bruzulier comes in for the injured Charlie Mulchrone, with versatile forward Mike Williams switching to the back row.

Wing Dean Hammond, prop Val Ruskin, hooker Gus Creevy, second row James Percival and flanker Sam Lewis all make the starting line-up.

While scrum-half Jonny Arr is serving a three-week suspension, Jonathan Thomas returns to the second row after a one-match ban for three yellow cards.

But there are no places in the squad for supporters club player-of-the-season Sam Betty, wing Sam Smith, lock Darren O’Shea, flanker Leo Senatore and prop Ryan Bower, who all started in Richmond.

Hammond is poised for his first Championship appearance since scoring in February’s win over Rotherham while Ben Howard, Alex Grove, Ryan Mills and Ryan Lamb keep their places and Cooper Vuna also starts.

In the front row, Ruskin and Argentina captain Creevy return to partner tighthead Nick Schonert, while skipper Gerrit-Jan Van Velze keeps his spot at number eight.

Warwick School pupil Jamie Shillcock has been named among the replacements. The 17-year-old Warriors academy scrum-half has represented the England under 18 Counties and England under 19 academies.

Warriors have sold just under 6,000 tickets for the tie.

Should they progress, Warriors will meet Rotherham or Bristol over two legs in the play-off final on May 20 and May 27.

Ryan said: “I think the first game showed some areas where we were pretty good, we were up to 17-3, but also how we lost momentum in that game due to a yellow card. We need to shore up a couple of things and get better at them.”

Scottish make just one change from the first leg, prop Mark Lilley coming in for James Hallam.

Warriors: Howard, Hammond, Grove, Mills, Vuna, Lamb, Bruzulier; Ruskin, Creevy, Schonert, Percival, Thomas, Williams, Lewis, Van Velze. Replacements: Annett, Fainga’anuku, Rees, Cox, Shillcock, Fatiaki, Biggs.