Friday, 14 October 2011

LV=Cup Preview; Gloucester v Sale

Gloucester start the defence of their LV=Cup crown with the visit of Sale to Kingsholm (Saturday 3pm).

This is the second game between the two sides in eight days, with Sale running out to a 13-11 victory at Edgeley Park in the league a week ago, and both will be looking for victory and are taking the competition seriously.

Both sides have made eight changes to the starting line up with more additions on the bench as they welcome back their internationals from the World Cup.

All four of Gloucester's World Cup squad are named amongst the replacements. Scott Lawson, Jim Hamilton, Alasdair Strokosch and Rory Lawson are all set for their first outing in the Cherry and White this season.

Brian Redpath is hoping Gloucester put last weekend's defeat behind them and start to perform as they can.
"Hopefully we can have a go this weekend and show what we're really capable of and overcome the fear of going out to win the game rather than trying to protect the game. We fell into that a wee bit last week."

"We're not playing enough in the right areas. We've not done that enough which is perhaps a few nerves from the first six rounds of the Premiership and some of the young players have never had that sort of exposure before."

"Saturday is a chance for us to reintroduce a few of our World Cup players and also to express ourselves a little bit more. We've been pretty sound defensively, Quins apart, but haven't really found our feet in attack."

Sale’s centre Luther Burrell is set to make his competitive debut, and there could be two more first appearances if internationals Tony Buckley and Johnny Leota come off the bench. James Gaskell switches from flanker to lock, whilst there are first starts for Scotland internationals Richie Vernon and Alasdair Dickinson.

Executive Director of Sport Steve Diamond said, "We have selected our strongest possible side but it will be a different challenge from last weekend, as there will be 13,000 people, including the Shed, screaming for Gloucester. With the players who have come back from the World Cup, we hope to have stronger element to our forward game, which will hopefully improve us.

"The LV= Cup is a very important competition for us and we are taking it very seriously. It offers a quick route into the Heineken Cup and significant prize money. We know tomorrow's game will be a very big challenge for us and that Gloucester will be formidable opponents."

Gloucester Rugby:15.Jonny May, 14.Charlie Sharples, 13.Henry Trinder, 12.Lesley Vainikolo, 11.James Simpson-Daniel, 10.Freddie Burns, 9.Dave Lewis, 1.Dan Murphy, 2.Matias Cortese, 3.Dario Chistolini, 4.Tom Savage, 5.Will James, 6.Brett Deacon, 7.Matt Cox, 8.Luke Narraway (capt)
Replacements:16.Scott Lawson, 17.Yann Thomas, 18.Shaun Knight, 19.Jim Hamilton, 20.Alasdair Strokosch, 21.Rory Lawson, 22.Tim Taylor, 23.Tom Voyce

Sale Sharks: 15.Rob Miller, 14.Tom Brady, 13.Andrew Higgins, 12.Luther Burrell, 11.Charlie Amesbury, 10.Nick Macleod, 9.Scott Mathie, 1.Alasdair Dickinson, 2.Joe Ward, 3.Vadim Cobilas, 4.Fraser McKenzie, 5.James Gaskell, 6.Richie Vernon, 7.David Seymour (capt.), 8.Mark Easter.
Replacements: 16.Tommy Taylor, 17.Lee Imiolek, 18.Tony Buckley, 19.Tom Holmes, 20.Kearnan Myall, 21.Will Cliff, 22. Johnny Leota, 23.Will Addison.

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