England pair on Gloucester bench
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:29
Gloucester have made two changes to their side from the one which won at Vicarage Road last Sunday to face Bristol this weekend at Kingsholm in their Guinness Premiership clash.
England No.8 Luke Narraway will return for the first time since he pulled his hamstring on Heineken Cup duty against Cardiff in October and will replace Alasdair Strokosch, who is on international duty with Scotland.
The other change comes on the wing where Matthew Watkins makes his first start since Gloucester’s 39-23 win over Newcastle in September. He comes in for Lesley Vainikolo, who moves to the bench.
Gloucester have won six of their last seven matches in all competitions and come into tomorrow’s derby following a 25-21 success at Saracens.
"For such a significant game it is great to have someone of Luke’s calibre back around the squad,” said head coach Dean Ryan.
"He is an international quality player and his enthusiasm will be very important.
"Against Saracens we looked more like the side we were last year and I think that was key. We had tried to build some protection around what we thought the new law variations would offer and although we didn’t want to change the way we played, we probably lost sight of the things we are good at.
"Last week we made a conscious effort to get back to what we know and at the same time use some of that protection. For a good proportion of that game we managed it and now we have to build on it moving forward into this game.
"We are a creative side and we have seen an uplift in that – we now have to keep improving it and moving it forward.
"Bristol are a very competitive side and they will come to Kingsholm and get amongst it – you can be sure of that."
In the forwards, Ryan keeps faith with props Nick Wood and Jack Forster, while Olivier Azam starts at hooker for the eighth time this season.
Will James and Alex Brown partner each other in the second row, while Peter Buxton, Apo Satala and Narraway complete the back row. Andy Hazell is still unavailable because of injury.
Dave Lewis continues his progression at scrumhalf with his second successive start in a halfback partnership with Ryan Lamb, who landed 10 points last Sunday.
Mike Tindall, who has featured in every game bar the away defeat to Sale, skippers the side from the centre alongside Anthony Allen, who made a try-scoring return last weekend.
Watkins, Iain Balshaw and Olly Morgan complete Gloucester’s line-up.
Ryan has opted for a four-three forward split on the bench. Scott Lawson and Dave Young cover the front row options, while Adam Eustace and hooker Andy Titterrell, who can also play in the back row, are the remaining forwards.
Gloucester: 15 Olly Morgan, 14 Iain Balshaw, 13 Mike Tindall (captain), 12 Anthony Allen, 11
Matthew Watkins, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Dave Lewis, 8 Luke Narraway, 7 Apo Satala, 6 Peter Buxton, 5 Alex Brown, 4 Will James, 3 Jack Forster, 2 Olivier Azam, 1 Nick Wood,
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Dave Young, 18 Adam Eustace, 19 Andy Titterrell, 20 Jordi Pasqualin, 21 Olly Barkley, 22 Lesley Vainikolo.
Date: Friday, November 21
Venue: Kingsholm
Kick-off: 19:45 GMT
Referee: Andrew Small
Touch judges: Bob Mullis, Alan Biggs
TMO: Matt Peters, David Matthew
