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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
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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