Bath Rugby boosted by return of England trio
Duncan Bell has been named among the replacements on his return from international duty with Martin Johnson's men.
Banahan's return on the wing means Matt Carraro switches to centre in place of young Ben Williams.
Lee Mears starts at hooker instead of Pieter Dixon and Stuart Hooper comes in for Peter Short in the other changes to the team which started last Friday's 12-12 draw at Worcester Warriors.
There will be a very familiar face in the London Irish line-up after Bath old boy Mike Catt was handed his first start of the 2009-10 campaign.
Catt will play at inside centre on a pitch that he knows intimately from his 12 years at The Rec.
The England Rugby World Cup winner is one of four changes to the starting line-up of the Irish team that lost to Newcastle Falcons last weekend.
Bath go into tomorrow's televised game looking for only their second win of the league season but skills and defence coach Brad Davis is confident the wait will not go on much longer.
"The players have had a great week of training so far," he said.
"The players have shown excellent focus throughout and everything is in place to put in a strong performance against London Irish.
"Playing against the leading try scorers makes it all the more exciting and challenging for us, as we know we have got to be on form to get a result.
"Our season has been one of near misses which goes to show how tight the Guinness Premiership is. However, we have kept working hard and trying to improve and we have added facets to our game that will help us get those winning results back."
Bath Rugby: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Jack Cuthbert, 13 Matt Carraro, 12 Shontayne Hape, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 Ryan Davis, 9 Michael Claassens (c); 1 David Flatman, 2 Lee Mears, 3 David Wilson, 4 Stuart Hooper, 5 Danny Grewcock, 6 Ben Skirving, 7 Julian Salvi, 8 Luke Watson. Replacements: Pieter Dixon, Nathan Catt, Duncan Bell, Peter Short, Daniel Browne, Scott Bemand, Nicky Little, Michael Stephenson.
London Irish: 15 Jamie Lennard, 14 Peter Hewat, 13 Elvis Seveali’i, 12 Mike Catt, 11 John Rudd, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Peter Richards; 1 Clarke Dermody, 2 David Paice, 3 Alex Corbisiero, 4 Nick Kennedy, 5 Bob Casey (c), 6 Richard Thorpe, 7 Steffon Armitage, 8 Chris Hala’Ufia. Replacements: Danie Coetzee, Dan Murphy, Max Lahiff, Kieran Roche, Jonathon Fisher, Marcus Watson, Paul Hodgson, Chris Malone.
Referee: Dean Richards.
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