Having sat out their 53-24 victory over a Madrid XV on Saturday, Wharfedale captain Rob Baldwin leads the England Counties XV out in their second match of their Spanish tour tomorrow.

England’s representative flagship of the county and community game face Castilla Leon Union in Salamanca with 12 changes to the starting line-up as the selectors fulfil their pledge to give every player a start in one of the first two matches.

The target for the Counties is to earn selection for the final game of the tour - the test match against Spain in Valladolid on Saturday.

The Dalesmen’s No 8 Baldwin said: “I’m really pleased and honoured to be asked to do the job.

“I’ve captained my club for the last two years and I’ve also led the Yorkshire side, but this is my first time as captain of the Counties.

“I need to concentrate on my game first and hopefully lead from the front. I’m really looking forward to it.”

For Baldwin, the captaincy comes on the back of having to sit out the first game completely, as happens for four players in each match with 26 players on tour and 22 in a match squad.

“You have to take it on the chin and take the rest time that goes with it,” he says.

“Now I’m looking forward to getting going and putting in a balanced display, but not trying too hard.

“If you try to do too much, it can all end in tears in this heat. I just want to go out and do my job.

“I think we need to come together more as a team and trust in each other - trust what your mates do, trust what other positions do, trust what we’ve done in training, rather than trying too hard.

“There will be times for individual flair and, when they occur, we want to see it being expressed, but the lads we are playing against will have been together a long time and, like Madrid, it will show.

“When you go into someone else’s backyard and you’re fighting for every scrap of ball, the opposition aren’t going to give it up easily.

“We need to put our bodies on the line and we need to do it for 80 minutes. One thing we need to learn from the Madrid game is that we can’t expect to win it by putting in a good performance in the first 20 minutes.

“The were scrapping for the full 80 minutes and still coming at us at the end, so we know what to expect.”

Otley’s Curtis Wilson, who scored a try against Madrid, is one of the three players retained from that contest.