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Jonny May will start for Gloucester six days after his failed HIA at Worcester
By Online Editors
Jonny May has been included to start versus Bristol on Friday night as new Gloucester boss George Skivington makes just two changes to the starting line-up that ran out convincing winners against 14-man Worcester at Sixways last Saturday.
Former Bath skipper Matt Garvey comes into the pack for his first start for the club, while Louis Rees-Zammit is the second change to the starting XV, the flying youngster included at full-back.
May has been chosen on the left wing despite last weekend's failed HIA after his collision with the red-carded Melani Nanai, the Samoan who will miss his club's next three matches due to suspension.
Medical evidence provided to the disciplinary hearing by Gloucester stated May was expected back in contact training by Thursday and having now been included to start, he will hope to last more than the 18 minutes he did last Saturday.
On the Gloucester bench, Franco Marais returns and a debut awaits for on-loan lock Danny Drake. After impressive appearances last week, academy duo Jack Clement and Stephen Varney retain their places in the reserves.
Scrum-half Joe Simpson was under no illusions over the challenge high-flying Bristol pose as they arrive at Kingsholm fresh from a restart win over Saracens. "They were really impressive at the weekend.
"We know that Bristol are going to be a completely different proposition, it’s going to be an interesting match and probably a good game to work out really where we are as a team. We know that we’re going to have to be on our metal in defence as well as get excited in attack."
GLOUCESTER (vs Bristol, Friday)
15. Louis Rees-Zammit; 14. Ollie Thorley, 13. Chris Harris, 12. Billy Twelvetrees, 11. Jonny May; 10. Danny Cipriani, 9. Joe Simpson; 1. Val Rapava-Ruskin, 2. Jack Singleton, 3. Fraser Balmain, 4. Ed Slater, 5. Matt Garvey, 6. Ruan Ackermann, 7. Lewis Ludlow (capt), 8. Jake Polledri.
Replacements: 16. Franco Marais, 17. Logovi’I Mulipola, 18. Jack Stanley, 19. Danny Drake, 20. Jack Clement, 21. Stephen Varney, 22. Tom Seabrook, 23. Charlie Sharples.
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Latest Comments
GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.
Go to commentsThe 2023 draw was only criticized when it became apparent that the top 5 sides in the world were on the same side of the draw. Nowhere did they discuss the decision to backtrack to 2019 rankings which ensured that England and Wales (ranked #12 in 2023) were ranked top4.
The parties who trashed out the schedule were England Rugby, NZ Rugby and ITV. It is bordering on corrupt that a Rugby nation has the power to schedule its opponents to play a major match the week before facing them in a QF.
You won't find commentary by members of the relevant committees because a committee did not make the scheduling decision. I have never heard members of World Rugby speak out on the draw or scheduling issues.
For example in 2015 Japan were hammered by Scotland 4 days after beating SA. The criticism only happens after a cock up.
A fair pool schedule is pretty straightforward: The lowest two tanked teams must play on last pool day but not against each other. That means that TV can focus on promoting big matches with a Tier2 involved for that Friday.
Why does NZ Always get its preferred slot playing the hardest pool match on day 1?
Why do other teams eg France, Ireland, Scotland get so often scheduled to play a hard match the week before the QFs?
If you believe the rules around scheduling are transparent then please point me in the right direction?
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