Bedford Blues take to the road once more this weekend for the always tricky trip to Old Deer Park to face fourth placed London Welsh.

It’s been less than a month since the two teams faced each other and at this stage of the season the Blues have two wins over the Exiles, but home advantage is often a key element to this fixture.

Back in October the Sky cameras were at Goldington Road as a mere three points separated the teams but when they met again in the British & Irish Cup the gap was a bit wider as the Blues won 44-14.

Bedford head into the game without Duncan Taylor who suffered an acromioclavicular (AC) joint injury during the game against Neath and will be sidelined for five more weeks. Dual registration player Will Fraser is out of action for up to three months following ankle surgery, but James Pritchard has recovered from the thigh strain that kept him out of last weekend’s game against Nottingham.

Following the squads final training session on Thursday night, Blues director of rugby Mike Rayer said: “This is an extremely important and difficult game for us at a crucial point of the season and every member of the squad knows that.

“We are going to be facing some make or break games in the play offs so this is a good dress rehearsal for them. London Welsh will be desperate to put one over us to get back on track so we are going to face a side with plenty of motivation.

"Our basic skills and execution will have to be spot on as their defensive pressure can cause sides major problems. On top of that with the threat that they pose behind the scrum we going to have to be on the edge defensively as well.

"We haven't performed on the road in the last two league fixtures so we need to address that this week."

Rayer makes one change in the backs from the team that started against Nottingham with Ian Vass returning at inside centre in place of Tom Bedford while upfront Dan Seal comes in for Sam Walsh and Chris Goodman gets the nod at number 8 while Gregor Gillanders moves onto the bench.

Starting line-up: 15. Edd Thrower 14. Handre Schmidt 13. Brendan Burke 12. Ian Vass 11. Ollie Dodge 10. Myles Dorrian 9. Will Chudley 1. Dan Seal 2. Dan Richmond (c) 3. Phil Boulton 4. Mike Howard 5. Paul Tupai 6. Alex Rae 7. Sacha Harding 8. Chris Goodman Replacements: 16. Joe Clark, 17. Sam Walsh, 18. Gregor Gillanders, 19. Ben Lewitt, 20. Nick Walshe, 21. Jake Sharp, 22. James Pritchard.