Preview: Gloucester v Leicester

Gloucester hooker Darren Dawiduik and Leicester wing Lote Tuqiri will make their first starts in the Guinness Premiership at Kingsholm on Friday.

Gloucester hooker Darren Dawiduik and Leicester wing Lote Tuqiri will make their first starts in the Guinness Premiership at Kingsholm on Friday.

Dawiduik is one of nine changes to the starting line up from the team that took on London Wasps last weekend.

Also returning are Greg Somerville, Will James and Jake Boer in the pack with James Simpson-Daniel, Tim Molenaar, Lesley Vainikolo, Nicky Robinson and Dave Lewis the new faces in the backline.

Dawiduik, who will be supported by the hugely experienced prop pairing of Greg Somerville and Nick Wood, gets his big opportunity with Scott Lawson called up by Scotland A within the official three week November Test window.

Gloucester are also obliged to release Rory Lawson for the same reason whilst Alasdair Strokosch, Akapusi Qera, Apo Satala and Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu are all away on international duty.

However, Gloucester do benefit from Paul Doran-Jones being released from the England squad and he takes his place amongst the replacements whilst new signing Nathan Thomas is also named on the bench.

Meanwhile, Leicester Head Coach Richard Cockerill has made three changes to his starting line-up for the trip to Gloucester.

After last week's win over Dragons in the LV= Cup, Aaron Mauger and Johne Murphy return to the Tigers backline and Brett Deacon takes the number shirt for the Kingsholm contest.

Mauger was rested last week and Murphy was away with the Ireland A squad, while Deacon returns after a taking a knock in the opening stages of the win over South Africa a fortnight ago.

Ben Kay, Jordan Crane and George Chuter are included in the 23 after their return from England training and wing Lote Tuqiri makes his first appearance in the Guinness Premiership.

“Our performance was a bit up and down against the Dragons last week,” said Cockerill.

“We pride ourselves on being more difficult to play against than that, so we are looking for an improvement.

“Gloucester have good players across the board and we know we will have to execute our own game well and match them physically.

“We're into a key part of the season with Gloucester, Leeds and Wasps in the Guinness Premiership and then into the back-to-back Heineken Cup games.”

Form:
Leicester have won their last four matches against Gloucester, including an unprecedented three in a row in 117 years of visiting Kingsholm. Gloucester have now slipped to six straight defeats in all competitions since their 19-17 victory over Dragons in the European Cup on 9 October, this represents Gloucester's worst run since season 1998/99. The cherry & whites' only win in their last six Guinness Premiership clashes was 26-10 at Leeds on 4 October. Leicester have lost just one of their last half a dozen matches in the Guinness Premiership: 12-18 at London Irish on 24 October, whilst the Tigers' only victory in their last four away games in all competitions was 46-11 at Viadana in the European Cup on 17 October.

The teams:

Gloucester: 15 Olly Morgan, 14 James Simpson-Daniel, 13 Henry Trinder, 12 Tim Molenaar, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9Dave Lewis, 8 Gareth Delve (c) 7 Jake Boer, 6 Peter Buxton, 5 Dave Attwood, 4 Will James, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Darren Dawiduik, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Ben Phillips, 17 Paul Doran-Jones, 18 Pierre Capdevielle, 19 Adam Eustace, 20 Nathan Thomas, 21 Jordi Pasqualin, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Tom Voyce

Leicester Tigers:
15 Scott Hamilton, 14 Lote Tuqiri, 13 Anthony Allen, 12 Aaron Mauger (c), 11 Johne Murphy, 10 Jeremy Staunton, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Ben Pienaar, 6 Brett Deacon, 5 Ben Kay, 4 Geoff Parling, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Mefin Davies, 1 Boris Stankovich.

Replacements:
16 George Chuter, 17 Robbie Harris, 18 Jonny Harris, 19 Calum Green, 20 Dan Hemingway, 21 James Grindal, 22 Toby Flood, 23 Matt Smith.

Date:<
Friday, November 20

Venue:
Kingsholm

Kick-off:
19.45 GMT
Referee: Sean Davey