Injuries and international call ups mean that Gloucester Rugby Head Coach Bryan Redpath has called up a couple of his young guns for Saturday’s Aviva Premiership Rugby fixture at Northampton Saints.
Redpath has tried, by and large, to keep faith with the side that defeated London Irish at Kingsholm last Friday.
However, the resumption of the RBS Six Nations sees the Lawsons, Rory and Scott, named in the Scotland squad and Mike Tindall, of course, is away captaining England.
In addition, Dave Lewis and Charlie Sharples both picked up knocks in the victory over the Exiles and are ruled out.
As a result, Jonny May (above) and Jordi Pasqualin are named on the right wing and at scrum half respectively and England U20 scrum half Dan Robson is recalled from international duty to take his place amongst the replacements.
Meanwhile, in the pack, Olivier Azam comes in for Lawson at hooker and Akapusi Qera gets the nod instead of Andy Hazell who played against Irish despite being unwell.
Of note amongst the replacements are the returns to the first team squad of Dave Attwood and Henry Trinder who both made playing comebacks in the A League on Monday evening.
Saints have been pacesetters in the Aviva Premiership this season but went down to a 38-8 defeat at Bath last weekend, a result which Redpath knows will give Jim Mallinder’s side all the motivation they need.
“They’ll be disappointed about last week because, if they lose, they rarely lose by that amount. They’ll be pretty fired up at the weekend.”
“We’ve highlighted that they don’t lose very often at home and we know that we’re in for a very tough game and it could well be close. We’re going away from home to a top two club and we’ve got to front up.”
“The performance will be key. As we’ve said in the past, if the performance is there then the result will take care of itself.”
Gloucester Rugby:
Olly Morgan; Jonny May, Tim Molenaar, Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, Tom Voyce; Nicky Robinson, Jordi Pasqualin; Nick Wood, Olivier Azam, Paul Doran-Jones; Will James, Jim Hamilton; Peter Buxton, Akapusi Qera, Luke Narraway (capt)
Replacements:
Darren Dawidiuk, Yann Thomas, Rupert Harden, Dave Attwood, Alasdair Strokosch, Dan Robson, Freddie Burns, Henry Trinder