Gloucester and Worcester welcome back Lions contingent
Both Gloucester and Worcester Warriors have welcomed back their British & Irish Lions stars for their respective Gallagher Premiership Round 4 clashes.
Gloucester head coach George Skivington has made two changes to the side that defeated Worcester Warriors last weekend with the Lions tourists Louis Rees-Zammit and Chris Harris - who had a cameo from the bench last week - returning to the starting 15.
The rest of the backline is unchanged with Jason Woodward starting at fullback alongside Jonny May and Rees-Zammit on the wings.
Worcester Warriors will unleash their Lions on Exeter Chiefs in Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership match at Sandy Park.
Wing Duhan van der Merwe and loosehead prop Rory Sutherland both linked up with Warriors last month having been given a well-earned break after the summer tour of South Africa.
The Scotland international pair have both been recruited from Edinburgh Rugby and, having settled in at Sixways, they will both start against last season’s beaten finalists among seven changes to the starting XV.
Van der Merwe comes into the back division in place of Melani Nanai, who suffered a hamstring injury against Gloucester last Saturday.
Sutherland takes his place in the front row alongside two more of Warriors’ summer signings, Scott Baldwin and Christian Judge, with Ethan Waller moving to the bench.
WORCESTER WARRIORS: 15 Jamie Shillcock, 14 Noah Heward, 13 Oli Morris, 12 Ollie Lawrence, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Billy Searle, 9 Willi Heinz (CC), 1 Rory Sutherland, 2 Scott Baldwin (CC), 3 Christian Judge, 4 Andrew Kitchener, 5 Justin Clegg, 6 Kyle Hatherell, 7 Matt Kvesic, 8 Sione Vailanu.
REPLACEMENTS: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Jay Tyack, 19 Joe Batley, 20 Sam Lewis, 21 Will Chudley, 22 Will Butler, 23 Harri Doel.
GLOUCESTER RUGBY: 15. Jason Woodward, 14. Louis Rees-Zammit, 13. Chris Harris, 12. Mark Atkinson, 11. Jonny May, 10. Adam Hastings, 9. Ben Meehan, 1. Harry Elrington, 2. Jack Singleton, 3. Kirill Gotovtsev, 4. Freddie Clarke, 5. Andrew Davidson, 6. Ruan Ackermann, 7. Lewis Ludlow (c), 8. Ben Morgan
REPLACEMENTS: 16. Matt Moulds, 17. Val Rapava-Ruskin, 18. Jamal Ford-Robinson, 19. Matias Alemanno, 20. Jack Clement, 21. Charlie Chapman, 22. Billy Twelvetrees, 23. Kyle Moyle
Latest Comments
Think it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
Go to commentsJust came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
Go to comments