MARK LEE and James Waterhouse will make their first starts for Plymouth Albion tomorrow when they take on Leinster in the British & Irish Cup.

The pair have so far only played a handful of minutes for Albion's first team, with Lee making three brief replacement appearances and Waterhouse four.

But they get their chance tomorrow in an Albion team which shows four changes to the one that performed so well to beat London Welsh 26-12 at Old Deer Park last week.

Sean-Michael Stephen and James Owen are ruled out with injury, so their places are taken by Wayne Sprangle and fit-again Joe Clark, while Lee and Waterhouse come in for captain Kieran Hallett and lock Mike Lewis, who drop to the bench for this weekend's cup match.

"Mark Lee and James Waterhouse have worked hard this autumn and they deserve a start," said Dawe. "And it is important the workload is shared among the squad.

"We have picked a team which hopefully can beat Leinster."

Dawe admits it is a big chance for 19-year-old former Ivybridge Community College pupil Lee, who will start at full-back.

"It is an opportunity for him to put a marker down for a regular starting spot," said Dawe.

"He is a talented player. He has got the attributes to play in a lot of positions and one of them is 15."

With Hallett not starting and vice-captain Geoff Griffiths out injured, number eight Kyle Marriott will skipper Albion for the first time.

Matt Hopper and George Porter could make their first appearances of the season after being named among a group of 10 replacements.

Both have made their comebacks from injuries in the last seven days.

Hopper, Albion's joint top try scorer from last season, returned from a long-standing ankle injury in Albion's development team's loss at London Scottish last Saturday.

Meanwhile, prop Porter, a summer signing from Lydney, played his first game since May against Launceston on Monday evening.

"Clearly neither is fully match fit," said Dawe. "But there is nothing wrong with their physical fitness and it would be good to see them have a run out if they get the opportunity."

However, the bad news for Albion is that flanker Stephen could be out until the new year with medial collateral ligament damage.

"It is a grade two type injury, which means rest and recovery for a few weeks," said Dawe. "We don't exactly know how many weeks he'll be out but we are hoping it won't be double figures."

Albion: M Lee, B Mercer, K Fisilau, S Tu'ipulotu, L Gibson, A Davies, R Cushion, M Rice, J Clark, R Hopkins, J Waterhouse, T Skelding , W Sprangle, R Watts-Jones, K Marriott (capt). Reps (from): K Hallett, G Kingdom, M Hopper, G Porter, D Porte, M Lewis, D Clayton, T Kessell, S Johns, G Dawe.