Snowden has been named on the bench for the Melbourne Rising for their third round National Rugby Championship clash with the undefeated Eagles.

He played for the Eagles in the inaugural year of the competition.

The Rising sit in third on the ladder and are coming off a 46-32 win over Queensland Country.

Coach Zane Hilton has made six changes to the starting line-up from that game. Among those is Tom English starting at outside centre for the first time since Round 8 back in 2014, for Sefa Naivalu, who was along with James Hanson and Lopeti Timani, called into the Wallabies squad.

English's shift to the centres will also see Jonah Placid move to the wing and Jack Debreczeni start at full-back for the first time in the NRC with Ben Meehan to partner Nic Stirzaker in the halves, after making his debut at 10 against Queensland Country.

Cruze Ah Nau, Pat Leafa and Harley Fox have also been been promoted back to the run-on team.

“I don’t think it gets much harder than this; it’s going to be a huge test for us against the competition’s most in-form side away from home,” Hilton said.

“We continue to make progress in our game, and showed plenty of positive signs against Queensland Country last weekend, but we’ll need to bring nothing short of our best to Tamworth if we’re any chance against the Eagles.”