GLOUCESTER RUGBY Five changes to winning starting XV
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- Last Updated on Friday, 23 October 2015 20:53
- Published on Friday, 23 October 2015 08:00
Gloucester Rugby introduce five new faces to the side that won 39-27 at Newcastle last Friday as they take on defending Aviva Premiership champions Saracens at Kingsholm tonight (1945ko).
The Cherry and Whites are boosted by the return of players from Rugby World Cup duty.
Returning in the back line are David Halaifonua, James Hook and Jonny May. Charlie Sharples moves to full-back from wing and captain Billy Twelvetrees returns to the midfield from fly-half.
Up front, Sione Kalamafoni will partner Tom Savage in the second row, and Ben Morgan takes over from Lewis Ludlow at number eight. Ludlow switches to blindside flanker.
Gloucester director of rugby David Humphreys said: "The first game of the season was important to us, everyone felt a little bit of pressure in the build up to it. But we were delighted with the win and with large parts of the performance. Now we're ready now for an even bigger challenge in Saracens.
"The priority for us at this early stage of the season is to make sure that we're focussing on ourselves, concentrating on how we're going to play, getting ourselves as best prepared as we can.”
Both teams have welcomed back World Cup returnees but Humphreys says there is no point second guessing who might line up for Saracens.
"It's impossible to know who we'll be up against, but we're confident, that with the team that we're going to put out, that we'll have another big performance in us.
"It'll be good to be back at Kingsholm – it's been a while. Saracens are the defending champions, it's a huge game and we're looking forward to that wonderful atmosphere that we experienced at Kingsholm last season.”
Gloucester Rugby starting 15 Charlie Sharples; 14 David Halaifonua, 13 Billy Twelvetrees (capt), 12 Billy Meakes, 11 Jonny May; 10 James Hook, 9 Willi Heinz; 1 Paddy McAllister, 2 Richard Hibbard, 3 John Afoa; 4 Tom Savage, 5 Sione Kalamafoni; 6 Lewis Ludlow, 7 Matt Kvesic, 8 Ben Morgan
Ready on the bench 16 Tom Lindsay, 17 Yann Thomas, 18 Paul Doran-Jones, 19 Elliott Stooke, 20 Jacob Rowan, 21 Callum Braley, 22 Steve McColl, 23 Mark Atkinson
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