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Bristol change seven for Friday's top-table Premiership clash while Exeter hand Jack Nowell first start in six months

(Photo by PA)

Pat Lam has made seven changes to his Bristol team for Friday night’s top-table Gallager Premiership clash against an Exeter XV that will give fit-again Jack Nowell his first start since last October’s title win over Wasps at Twickenham. With the Bears currently twelve points clear of the title holders, boss Pat Lam has stuck by his habit of never picking the same 23 during his four-year Ashton Gate tenure and his shake-up this week begins with the return of skipper Steven Luatua returns to the starting line-up.

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Charles Piutau comes in at full-back and Sam Bedlow also returns to the backline. Max Malins, last weekend’s man of the match at Newcastle, switches to fly-half with Callum Sheedy unavailable. In the pack, Bryan Byrne and Kyle Sinckler are named in the front row, while Dave Attwood and Dan Thomas also earn starts.

Rob Baxter has also tinkered with his Exeter selection following their hammering of Wasps last weekend at Sandy Park. Ben Moon and Tomas Francis come into the front row in place of Alec Hepburn and Harry Williams, Jonny Gray is restored to the second row and with Dave Ewers sidelined with a calf injury, Sam Skinner drops into the back row.

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Behind the scrum, the sole change sees Nowell – who played his first game of the season last week when he came on as a second-half replacement – start on the right wing at the expense of Facundo Cordero. With Gray promoted from the bench, Richard Capstick comes into the match-day 23, as does Ian Whitten.

Bristol beat Exeter at Sandy Park in January and Baxter warned: “I’ll be honest, we are not playing at our best yet by any means. In fact, that best may still be a week or so away. However, we are getting more and more time together with the whole group of players and I can definitely see us on an upward curve, which is important at this time of year.

“It should be a good game, shouldn’t it. It’s first versus second, conditions are going to be good, the pitch is going to be good, and Bristol are a very good team playing very good rugby. That said, we have started to show form ourselves, so it has all the ingredients to be a great occasion.

“It may seem a little less important for Bristol than us, just because they have that points lead, but they have earned that lead. We haven’t given ourselves any leeway at this stage, so we’ve got to keep winning if we want to keep teams away from us.” 

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BRISTOL: 15. Charles Piutau; 14. Niyi Adeolokun, 13. Piers O’Conor, 12. Sam Bedlow, 11. Luke Morahan; 10. Max Malins, 9. Andy Uren; 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Bryan Byrne, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. Dave Attwood, 5. Chris Vui, 6. Steven Luatua (capt), 7. Dan Thomas, 8. Jake Heenan. Reps: 16. Will Capon, 17. Jake Woolmore, 18. John Afoa, 19. Joe Joyce, 20. Fitz Harding, 21. Tom Kessell, 22. Ioan Lloyd, 23. Alapati Leiua.

EXETER: 15. Stuart Hogg; 14. Jack Nowell, 13. Henry Slade, 12. Ollie Devoto, 11. Tom O’Flaherty; 10. Joe Simmonds (capt), 9. Jack Maunder; 1. Ben Moon, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Tomas Francis, 4. Jonny Gray, 5. Jonny Hill, 6. Sam Skinner, 7. Jacques Vermeulen, 8. Sam Simmonds. Reps: 16. Jack Yeandle, 17. Alec Hepburn, 18. Harry Williams, 19. Sean Lonsdale, 20. Richard Capstick, 21. Stu Townsend, 22. Harvey Skinner, 23. Ian Whitten.

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f
fl 2 hours ago
Springboks' dominance of the world rankings comes under increased threat

good comment, but ranking points being doubled during the RWC won’t actually have the effect you’re implying.


You still only lose ranking points if you’re beaten by a team that you could conceivably beat, hence why Italy lose no points when beaten by South Africa. Wales entering the RWC in 2027 in a group full of teams better than them would mean that they would lose no points, or only a very small amount of points, by being beaten, but would have the potential to drastically improve their ranking with just a single upset win.


E.g. using today’s ranking points, lets imagine Wales drew Ireland, Fiji, and Romania in their pool, losing against the first two but beating Romania, then lost to France in the R16. The worst case scenario (losing to Fiji, Ireland, and France by more than 15 points, and beating Romania by less than 15) would only lose Wales 0.66 points. The alternate scenario (coming within 15 points of Fiji and beating Romania by more than 15) would lose Wales just 0.29 points. The dream scenario of Wales securing a narrow win over Fiji would improve Wales’ score by 3.37 points, although I cba factoring in how that would impact Wales’ draw in the knockouts. Feel free to check these calculations yourself at the website called “World Rugby Rankings Calculator”, which is easily found through google but which I don’t think I can link to directly on here.


Its worth remembering that England finished 3rd at the world cup and Ireland lost in the QFs, but because England had a much easier draw than Ireland they finished the tournament ranked 5th, and Ireland 2nd. Overall the rankings do a pretty great job of fairly reflecting how well teams have played.

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