Biarritz v Gloucester: Teams
Biarritz host Gloucester at the Parc des Sports Augilera in a crunch Pool Two clash on Saturday.
Last Updated: 16/10/09 12:17pm
Biarritz host Gloucester at the Parc des Sports Augilera on Saturday, with the winner set to take control of the Heineken Cup's Pool Two.
Both sides were victorious in their opening fixtures last weekend and a second successive win would see either team deemed favourites for progression to the knockout stages.
Gloucester head coach Bryan Redpath admits that his side are not in the best of form, but Friday's narrow win over the Dragons and the previous week's league victory at Leeds Carnegie will at least have provided some momentum ahead of their trip to south west France.
The Cherry and Whites will hope that summer signing Nicky Robinson continues to produce the goods after the former Cardiff Blues fly-half was again one of his side's key performers last time out.
But while Gloucester have struggled to find consistency so far this term, Biarritz have had no such trouble.
The Basque giants have won their last six competitive matches - a run that has included victories over Stade Francais, Brive, Toulon and Perpignan.
Reshuffle
The sides met at this stage of the competition last season, with both teams triumphing by similar scorelines at their home grounds.
Gloucester were the victors 22-10 in round one in 2008-09, while Biarritz took the honours 24-10 in at the Parc des Sports Augilera in round six.
Redpath has kept changes to a minimum in his side. Carlos Spencer is in the matchday 23 for the first time since preseason and Jake Boer is named on the bench.
There are only two changes to the back line that started against the Dragons last weekend with centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu returning after injury and Dave Lewis swapping places with Rory Lawson at scrum half.
In the pack, Will James, a first half replacement for Alex Brown against the Dragons, maintains his place whilst the back row is reshuffled with Andrew Hazell coming in for Alasdair Strokosch with Akapusi Qera taking over on the blindside.
On the bench, All Black Spencer is selected for the first time since breaking a toe in preseason whilst Boer, who was only registered on Wednesday, comes straight in.
"We are the underdogs going across there but we can take certain things out of last weekend," said Redpath.
"I know a lot of people knocked last weekend's game but we won in Europe not playing particularly well against arguably the form team in the Magners League."
For Biarritz, Arnaud Mignardi replaces Ayoola Erinle at outside centre in the starting line-up and Imanol Harinordoquy moves from flank to number eight as Samiu Vahafolau comes into side.
Biarritz Olympique: 15 Marcelo Bosch, 14 Takudzwa Ngwenya, 13 Arnaud Mignardi, 12 Damien Traille, 11 Nicolas Brusque, 10 Julien Peyrelongue, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Samiu Vahafolau, 6 Magnus Lund, 5 Pelu Taele, 4 Jerome Thion, 3 Campbell Johnstone, 2 Benoit August, 1 Fabien Barcella.
Replacements: 16 Romain Terrain, 17 Eduard Coetzee, 18 Mosese Moala, 19 Manuel Carizza, 20 Wenceslas Lauret, 21 Valentin Courrent, 22 Ayoola Erinle, 23 Laurent Tranier,
Gloucester: 15 Tom Voyce, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 James Simpson-Daniel, 12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Dave Lewis,8 Gareth Delve, 7 Andy Hazell, 6 Akapusi Qera, 5 Will James, 4 David Attwood, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Alasdair Dickinson.
Replacements: 16 Darren Dawiduik, 17 Paul Doran-Jones, 18 Pierre Capdevielle, 19 Jake Boer, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Tim Molenaar, 22 Carlos Spencer, 23 Freddie Burns.