Preview: Bristol v Gloucester
Gloucester will welcome back a raft of internationals on Sunday when they make the trip to the Memorial Stadium to face Bristol in the Guinness Premiership.
Gloucester will welcome back a raft of internationals on Sunday when they make the trip to the Memorial Stadium to face Bristol in the Guinness Premiership.
England trio Lesley Vainikolo, Iain Balshaw and Luke Narraway will be joined by Scotland's Chris Paterson, Italy's Marco Bortolami and Carlos Nieto and Gareth Delve of Wales in a much-changed line-up named by head coach Dean Ryan.
The changes will see a significant shift in Ryan's starting line-up following their 20-13 defeat to Leicester last weekend.
Paterson will return at stand-off to replace Willie Walker and will make his fourth start of the season at number ten. Ryan Lamb is ruled out with a shoulder injury. He will partner Gareth Cooper at half-back, who makes his first Premiership start since Gloucester's 20-13 victory away to Newcastle before Christmas.
The centre partnership of Anthony Allen and Jack Adams remains the same as the one that faced Leicester, while James Simpson-Daniel will be partnered by Vainikolo – who will make his first start since the victory over Ulster in January – and full-back Iain Balshaw, who comes in for James Bailey in the back three.
Up front, there are also considerable alterations. Nick Wood is the only remaining member of the front row that started against Leicester as Carlos Nieto returns at tighthead and is joined at hooker by Jeremy Paul, who will make his first Guinness Premiership start.
At lock, Marco Bortolami returns from the fractured eye socket sustained against Ulster and will partner Will James. Peter Buxton, who has featured in 16 games this season, moves to the bench.
Narraway, who has won his first two England caps against Wales and Italy, comes in at number six in place of Alasdair Strokosch, Andy Hazell retains the number seven shirt and Gareth Delve returns at number eight.
“Although we lost against Leicester last weekend we saw a clear image of what we want to be as a side,” Ryan said.
“We can take a lot of positives from that performance and obviously this week the group has returned to something like full strength so we want to see a continuation of that process.
“We are beginning a period of some crucial matches and that continues on Sunday against Bristol. We know they are an outstanding side at the nuts and bolts of the game and when that functions they are capable of taking a team apart – you only have to look at what happened to Stade Français in the Heineken Cup to appreciate their threat.”
On the bench, scrum-half Rory Lawson will be joined by utility back Willie Walker and wing Mark Foster.
The forwards are made up of hooker Andy Titterrell as Olivier Azam is given a rest, prop Alasdair Dickinson, Buxton and Strokosch.
Meanwhile, David Lemi returns on the left wing for Bristol, after having missed the team's last two starts to be with his wife and sick son in Samoa. All is now well in the Lemi household, however, and all three have returned to Bristol.
Lemi's return is timely with top try scorer for the season Tom Arscott ruled out due to the hamstring injury that forced him to leave the game at Worcester.
Lee Robinson starts with Anthony Elliott only just having returned from England Sevens duty and Brian O'Riordan is back at scrum half in place of Graeme Beveridge.
Up front, Scott Linklater gets the start at hooker in place of Mark Regan who is named on the replacements bench and Joe El Abd is named as the starting openside.
“Our international contingent are back but what we need to do is make sure that our starting XV are those people who are fully rested,” said coach Richard Hill.
“So I've kept a couple of players like Ronnie (Mark Regan) back but I will be looking to introduce them at some stage.”
“It's going to be tough. Gloucester are a high quality side with threats all over the field. Normally, you can find one or two areas in a team which you can negate but Gloucester have quality all over. Our defence will have to be better than it has been the last couple of times we've played them and we'll have to get our set piece right.”
Form: Bristol Rugby have won just one of their last five matches in the Guinness Premiership: 18-3 at home to Saracens on 6 January. Bristol are however unbeaten at Memorial Stadium in the Premiership since the opening weekend of the season when Leicester won 26-13. After losing just once in the opening nine rounds of the Guinness Premiership, Gloucester Rugby have now been defeated twice in their last three encounters in the competition however they remain the second best away side in the Premiership with 20 league points gleaned on the road this season. Gloucester have won the last two meetings with Bristol but have not won at Memorial Stadium in the Premiership since September 2005.
The teams:
Bristol: 15 Luke Arscott, 14 Lee Robinson, 13 Rob Higgitt, 12 David Hill, 11 David Lemi, 10 Jason Strange, 9 Brian O'Riordan, 8 Andrew Blowers, 7 Joe El Abd, 6 Matt Salter, 5 Sean Hohneck, 4 Roy Winters, 3 Jason Hobson, 2 Scott Linklater, 1 Darren Crompton.
Replacements: 16 Mark Regan, 17 Alex Clarke, 18 Gareth Llewellyn, 19 Alfie To'oala, 20 Graeme Beveridge, 21 Sam Cox, 22 Josh Taumalolo.
Gloucester: 15 Iain Balshaw, 14 James Simpson-Daniel, 13 Jack Adams, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Chris Paterson,9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Gareth Delve, 7 Andy Hazell, 6 Luke Narraway, 5 Will James, 4 Marco Bortolami (capt), 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Jeremy Paul, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Andy Titterrell, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Peter Buxton, 19 Alasdair Strokosch, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Willie Walker, 22 Mark Foster.
Date: Sunday, February 17
Kick-off: 15:00 GMT
Venue: Memorial Ground, Bristol
Referee: Wayne Barnes
Touch judges: Ashley Reay, Paul Emerson
Television match official: Brian Abrahams