Sarries Under Lights

It is to be hoped that the protracted takeover process by Mohed Altrad, St Andre et al is not proving too much of a distraction to the Gloucester players ...

Certainly they all looked out of touch at Tigers last week, but the arrival of Sarries for a Friday night under lights provides an ideal opportunity to get things back on track. It's live on BT as well.

It's no surprise that there's a handful of changes. In the pack Salesi Ma'afu, Ben Morgan and Ross Moriarty all return, while Matt Scott is back in the centre and   David Halaifonua is on the left wing.

Our visitors, of course, are having a great season and led the Premiership for a long time and will be keen to overhaul the five point lead currently being enjoyed by Wasps.

Meanwhile, last week's defeat sent us back down to 9th place and we are some 24 points behind the leaders. It's to be hoped the new owners will find that as unacceptable as the Shed does.

Gloucs: 15. Tom Marshall; 14. Charlie Sharples, 13. Matt Scott, 12. Billy Twelvetrees, 11. David Halaifonua; 10. Billy Burns, 9. Willi Heinz (capt); 1. Josh Hohneck, 2. Richard Hibbard, 3. Salesi Ma'afu; 4. Tom Savage, 5. Jeremy Thrush; 6. Ross Moriarty, 7. Jacob Rowan, 8. Ben Morgan

Reps: 16. Motu Matu'u, 17. Yann Thomas, 18. Paul Doran-Jones, 19. Mariano Galarza, 20. Lewis Ludlow, 21. Callum Braley,

Sarries: 15 Duncan Taylor, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Brad Barritt (capt), 11 Mike Ellery, 10 Alex Lozowski, 9 Richard Wigglesworth, 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Schalk Brits, 3 Juan Figallo, 4 Michael Rhodes, 5 Jim Hamilton, 6 Will Fraser, 7 Schalk Burger, 8 Jackson Wray.

Reps: Jared Saunders, Richard Barrington, Petrus Du Plessis, Mark Flanagan, Kelly Brown, Ben Spencer, Max Malins, Matt Gallagher.