Gloucester will be able to call upon their international players for this week’s West Country derby with Bath. The Cherry and Whites will travel to The Rec on Friday night in Round 10 of the Gallagher Premiership.
Wales try scoring sensation Louis Rees Zammit has been named in the starting 15 alongside Scotland’s Chris Harris, while Italian scrum half Stephen Varney is named on the bench. Friday night will also see the return of Alex Craig and Ed Slater from his four match ban, although they will be without winger Jonny May who remains at England.
Gloucester have just one victory to their name so far this season, and the West Country derby will prove a difficult game for the side. George Skivington’s men suffered a last minute heartbreak to Bristol in the previous round, losing by a single point.
The Cherry and Whites have put in some solid performances in recent weeks, but seem to allow the games to slip away towards the end. Coach George Skivington said:
“I think we had opportunities against Bristol where we could’ve pushed ahead a little bit and we could have shut them down a little bit.”
“We always look through the whole game, but again it probably goes back to sticking in our systems for 80 minutes and that’s something we’re consistently pushing and trying to get to and I’m confident when we get to that point we’ll be hard to beat.”
Bath Rugby have made two changes to their team that beat Sale Sharks last week. Taulupe Faletau makes his return from international duty, while Josh Bayliss comes into the team to replace the injured Josh McNally.
Skivington is fully aware of what Bath will bring to the derby.
“I fully expect them to be fully charged up for the weekend. They’ve got threats all over the park, they’re a well organised set piece.”
“They’ve got a good back line there and Rhys Priestland runs it well. It’s more how do you stop it and how do you deal with more than anything else.”
Skipper Lewis Ludlow believes his side can go there and put in a shift.
“Bath’s win last week was built on a massive defensive effort, five of their forwards made over 20 tackles. So we know we’re going to go down there, and they’re going to bar up and they’re going to defend it’s at their home and there’s no reason why we can’t do the same.”
“We’ve got a really attacking team, everyone knows our backs especially the back three boys are really attacking threats. I’m sure we’ll be looking to score points as we always do.”
