NEC Harlequins will give Bruce Starr, an Australian specialist loose-head prop signed during the summer, his debut against Rotherham at The Stoop on Saturday.
Although Quins applied for international clearance for Starr to play on July 28 Piacenza, the Italian club he signed from, did not get round to completing the forms until Tuesday meaning he was unable to play last week against London Irish.
The London club are also looking to bolster the front row next week with the signing of a back-up hooker, currently playing abroad, for Keith Wood who has said he will have to miss parts of the season because of international commitments.
Starr will replace Jon Dawson who will start on the bench and is the only change on the line-up which lost to London Irish in the opening round of the Zurich Premiership last Saturday.
Mike Scott, the team manager, said: "Jon did well last week but obviously Bruce was the coach's first choice."
He said although the team were bitterly disappointed with the loss against Irish they have been emphasising the positive aspects in training this week namely that Irish had 70 percent of the possession and were still limited to just one close-range try.
"It is early in the season for us, as it is for everybody. We are looking to constantly improve, we have said a few times this year we are not setting any targets but tomorrow has got to be better than last week," said Scott.
Quins were encouraged with the form of fly-half Paul Burke and Will Greenwood in the centre with the renewal of Jason Leonard and Keith Wood's partnership also being a major positive.
There was some disappointment with the back row's performance with ball in hand but the overall defensive effort was the main plus point.
"Ball retention was the key. When we had the ball last week we made it very difficult form ourselves by giving it away too easily," said Scott who was expecting a tough encounter with the Premiership new-boys Rotherham.
"Rotherham have got some good players who have got some experience in the Premiership. They gave Bristol a very hard game last week and we are not expecting anything different tomrrow," he said.
The Quins team will be: Jason Leonard, Keith Wood (capt), Bruce Starr, Alex Codling, Adam Jones, Rory Jenkins, Steve White-Cooper, Pat Sanderson, Peter Richards, Paul Burke, Brendon Daniel, Will Greenwood, Nick Greenstock, Daren O'Leary, Ryan O'Neill rep: Matt Powell. Nick Burrows, Jon Dawson, Mark Mapletoft, Andy Dawling, Richard Nias,