Redford Pennycook is aiming to make up for lost time this season by establishing himself as a regular in the Bristol first team.

The 23-year-old flanker made his first-team debut during the 2005-06 season but has managed only 13 senior starts for the club so far.

An ankle injury suffered during pre-season ruled him out of the 28-23 opening-day Championship victory against London Welsh – but he is now fully fit and will start today's match at Birmingham & Solihull.

"It's been frustrating in the past, some weeks being in and then having two or three weeks without playing," said the Bristolian, pictured.

"Hopefully I can get some consistency this season and get a few runs of games and keep challenging for that spot.

"But the back row is very competitive and even in training the boys are putting the pressure on.

"I don't think anyone has secured their spot yet. I played a few games in the Premiership at the end of last season, but with the new back row coming in and my injury, I've almost got to prove myself all over again and start from scratch."

Pennycook will line up alongside James Phillips and summer recruit Dan Montagu in the back row this afternoon, with Iain Grieve named on the bench.

And he is well aware of how tough it will be for Bristol to return to the Guinness Premiership, with every side in the league eager to beat the relegated club.

"Everyone in this division is going to be gunning for us – it's going to be a cup final every week," he said.

"Birmingham will look to disrupt us and beating us would be a big achievement for them, so we can't go in there complacent – we need to give it everything we've got.

"It's not the best facilities and ground so it's going to be a bit of a reality shock for us. We've got to get our heads on and try to turn them over quickly.

"We know some teams in this division don't even have stands, so the whole season is going to be a reality shock. I've seen some of the average attendances are around 1,000, so we know it's going to be very different.

"We're slowly getting better, week by week. The London Welsh performance was another step up from the pre-season game at Newbury and I thought we dealt with it quite well."

Centre Jack Adams will make his Bristol Rugby debut alongside Luke Eves after overcoming a shoulder injury, while Mark Irish, David Blaney and Mariano Sambucetti all return to the front five.

Bristol: T Arscott; L Robinson, J Adams, L Eves, D Norton; A Jarvis, J Spice (capt); M Irish, D Blaney, W Thompson, M Sambucetti, R Winters, J Phillips, R Pennycook, D Montagu. Reps: R Johnson, D Crompton, J Brown, I Grieve, S Alford, M Davies, L Arscott.