Strong Squad for Bath

The Premierishp Cup may not be struggling to attract much attention but the midweek game at Bath Rugby (Wednesday 7.45) is a welcome opportunity to get on the pitch and make a few bob.

Gloucester's admission that the (hopefully) postponed game against Wuss, which was scheduled for this weekend, will cost the club £400,000 is sobering. Does the game needs to cut its cloth right across the board?

It costs a lot of money to run a big squad in the Premiership - certainly if you are to be competitive. That's why owners want the competition to be ringfenced , but that is as popular with supporters as Kwasi Kwarteng's fiscal bombshells are with economists.

However, the Premiership is proving to be a very entertaining product with some tremendously exciting games every week - many of them live on BT. If games can generate nearly half a milliuon let's have more of them.

Let's have a 16 team league, cap the same size squads but limit player appearances to just 20 games.

The model is working in part in the way international players are allowd to return  to league action. Gloucs have decided that now is the time for Jonny May to end his enforced rest after the England tour. 

He'll be in the team which plays at The Rec as will skipper Lewis Ludlow who returns after injury. Hopefully, some important funds will be generated.

Gloucs: 15. Kyle Moyle 14. Tom Seabrook 13. Jack Reeves12. Giorgi Kveseladze 11. Jonny May 10. George Barton 9. Stephen Varney 1. Ciaran Knight 2. Henry Walker 3. Bryan O’Connor 4. Arthur Clark 5. Cameron Jordan 6. Jake Polledri 7. Lewis Ludlow (capt) 8. Jack Clement.

Changes: 16. Seb Blake 17. Fred Ma’a 18. James Pollard 19. Freddie Thomas  20. Jack Bartlett  21. Matty Jones 22. Isaac Marsh 23. Jake Morris.