NEW signing Mike Voyle goes straight into the Newport team for their Celtic League, Welsh/Scottish League opener at home to Caerphilly on Saturday.

Voyle, who flew in from New Zealand only on Monday to join Newport on an initial 12-week contract, plays alongside skipper Simon Raiwalui in the boilerhouse.

Voyle, capped 22 times for Wales and formerly with Cardiff, has joined Newport as cover for Wales lock Ian Gough, who is still recovering from a shoulder injury suffered at the end of last season.

"Mike arrived on Monday, trained on Monday afternoon and has taken part in all the rugby sessions since," said Newport team manager Jim McCreedy.

"He's also been doing some extra work with Tristan Bevan, our fitness coach, just to to get a bit more sharpness.

"Mike is an established middle line jumper and we feel he will need as much of an opportunity to get used to us as we will to him."

Alix Popham, (pictured) recovered from burns suffered in an accident at home, is given the first chance to fill the No 8 gap left by the retirement of the great Gary Teichmann.

In the centre Matthew Watkins and Jon Pritchard are the chosen pair this time (Andy Marinos a replacement) while Paul Young starts at hooker and Adrian Garvey is the prop who sits out the start.

Garvey, recovered from an Achilles' strain, is on the bench with James Richards. Also on the bench are new recruit from Ebbw Vale, via Pontypool, Jason Strange and Wales under-21 international scrum half Llyr Lane, No 2 to Dale Burn in the absence of the injured David Llewellyn and the yet-to-arrive SA ace Joost van der Westhuizen. New recruit from Swansea, Chris Anthony, is the only Newport player making his league debut.

The Newport side was chosen after consultations with new coach Ian McIntosh in South Africa and McCreedy pointed out it was chosen with future games in mind. "We have three very important games in a week (Cardiff away next Wednesday and Edinburgh at home the following Saturday) and the side has been selected with that in mind," he said.

"The intention is that everybody will play some part."

Newport will be expected to deal comfortably with the Caerphilly threat, but McCreedy said: "We have always treated Caerphilly with the utmost respect.

"We have memories still of a few seasons ago when they turned us over five times. At the end of last season they played exceptionally well against us, at a time when we had perhaps lost a bit of momentum."

Newport: M Pini, M Mostyn, M Watkins, J Pritchard, B Breeze, S Howarth, D Burn, R Snow, P Young, C Anthony, S Raiwalui, M Voyle, P Buxton, J Forster, A Popham. Replacements: A Garvey, J Richards, G Taylor, J Powell, A Marinos, J Strange, L Lane. Kick-off 2.30pm.