Preview: Bath v Gloucester

England centre Mike Tindall returns to the starting line-up and captains the side as Gloucester travel to Bath on Friday.

England international centre Mike Tindall returns to the line-up and captains the side as Gloucester travel to his former club, Bath on Friday.

Tindall was used as a replacement in the 22-20 win over London Wasps last weekend but is back to partner Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, who is also facing his former club, in the Gloucester midfield.

Head Coach Bryan Redpath also has to field a new half-back pairing with Rory Lawson having undergone an operation to insert a pin in a broken bone in his hand and Tim Taylor sidelined with a knee injury.

As a result, Dave Lewis and Nicky Robinson are named at scrum-half and fly-half respectively.

Finally, there is just one change to the pack which started against Wasps with Alex Brown selected alongside Jim Hamilton in the second row with Dave Attwood moving to the bench.

Meanwhile, following on from last week's bonus point win against Sale Sharks, Bath forwards Coach Martin Haag explained how much the team are looking forward to tomorrow's derby match.

“It's always exciting to be playing Gloucester at home – the first local derby of the season,” he said.

“The guys responded very, very well during the week following the Northampton game, applied themselves at the weekend and got a very good result. It was a good score-line at half-time, and perhaps we didn't play as well during the second half, but we got the bonus point at the end through Ben Williams so that was very pleasing. From a performance point-of-view, even though Sale had a lot of ball, our defence was good until the last 30 seconds of the game – and some of the areas we had been working on were a lot better.

“We won't be taking Gloucester lightly. Every team has got weaknesses, but it's a case of making sure that our game is good and then exploiting those weaknesses. Gloucester have had a tough start to the season and we know what that's like, and it makes you even more determined to win the big games, so the important thing for us is to get that win. If you look through their team, they've got some superb individuals. They've also got a good set-piece, so it should be a good, exciting game under the lights at the Rec.

“Local derbies are always tough – and the weather forecast is not great – so it should be a good battle from all quarters. There is nothing better sometimes than playing a local derby, especially under lights. Throughout my career, I played a few home games and a few away games against Gloucester, and these fixtures always have that extra special bit. Playing local derbies against Gloucester are always a special occasion for us and, even as a coach, you want the players to perform, do well and beat your closest rivals.”

Form: Bath have won seven of their last eight regular season games in the Premiership. Bath have been victorious in their last eight Premiership matches at The Rec, whilst another win would set a new Bath record for successive home Premiership victories. Gloucester's four games so far have all been won by the home side on the day. Gloucester's only away win in the Premiership since 4 October 2009 was 23-22 at relegated Worcester on 8 May. Bath's 24-8 victory at the Rec in their most recent meeting with Gloucester ended a four game losing run against their local rivals. Gloucester have won just once in 13 previous visits to The Rec in the Premiership: 21-17 on 13 September 2008.

The teams:

Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Matt Carraro, 13 Shontayne Hape, 12 Olly Barkley, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 Sam Vesty, 9 Michael Claassens, 8 Luke Watson (c), 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Andy Beattie, 5 Danny Grewcock, 4 Stuart Hooper, 3 Duncan Bell, 2 Pieter Dixon, 1 David Barnes.
Replacements:16 Ross Batty, 17 Nathan Catt, 18 David Wilson, 19 Ben Skirving, 20 Josh Ovens, 21 Mark McMillan, 22 Tom Biggs, 23 Jack Cuthbert.

Gloucester: 15 Charlie Sharples, 14 James Simpson-Daniel, 13 Mike Tindall (c), 12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Dave Lewis,8 Brett Deacon 7 Andy Hazell, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Alex Brown, 4 Jim Hamilton, 3 Paul Doran-Jones, 2 Olivier Azam, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Pierre Capdevielle, 19 Dave Attwood, 20 Luke Narraway, 21 Jordi Pasqualin, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Tim Molenaar

Date: Friday, October 1
Venue: The Recreation Ground
Kick-off: 20.05 BST (19.05GMT)
Referee: Wayne Barnes