NORTH Midlands have called up former England Under 21 number eight Dave Merlin for their crunch County Championship Shield pool match against Oxfordshire at Chinnor RFC in Thame tomorrow (3pm).

Merlin, who has played senior rugby for Northampton, Worcester and Blackheath, is currently without a club.

But he has been brought in for his full debut for North Midlands to beef up the back-row for what is likely to be a hard, physical game.

"The reports we have had on Oxfordshire suggest that they have a big front and they like to play a stick-it-up-your-jumper driving game," said Charlie Hemmings, North Midlands' team manager.

"That's not the sort of game that we aspire to but it's one that we might have to adapt to which is one of the reasons we have brought Dave Merlin into the back row."

North Midlands, who won the Shield last season, will qualify for a second consecutive Twickenham final on May 29 if they beat Oxfordshire on Saturday.

James Lloyd-Jones, of Bromsgrove, comes in at full-back to replace Malvern's Dave King who suffered a hamstring injury in the 20-12 win over Durham. This will be the last opportunity for North Midlands players to impress the England Counties selectors before this summer's tour to Argentina and Uruguay.

North Midlands: Lloyd-Jones (Bromsgrove); Wilson (Stourbridge), McLaughlin (Stourbridge), Eastwood (Malvern), Hall (Stourbridge); Hughes (Stourbridge, captain), Davies (Dudley Kingswinford); McGowan (Luctonians), Arnold (Bromsgrove), Culley (Stourbridge), Tisdale (Stourbridge), Taylor (Bromsgrove), Dawson (Stourbridge), Daws (Old Patesians), Merlin (unattached). Replacements: James (Loughborough University), Jacques (Luctonians), Wilkinson (Dudley Kingswinford), Ott (Malvern), Beechey (Lydney), King (Malvern).