L Irish v Gloucester: Teams

London Irish coach Toby Booth believes his side's team spirit and work ethos will be more than enough to match the resources of Gloucester.

Having lacked consistency in the league last season, the Exiles have really found their form this time around and enter the festive period sharing the lead in the Premiership with their opponents this weekend.

And Booth believes his side are now proving they are now more than a match for the best sides in the country.

"Gloucester are a well resourced club as their performance over recent seasons confirms," said Booth.

"They have a strong and talented squad that is laced with quality players whichever position you care to look at.

"And in Dean Ryan, Bryan Redpath and their colleagues as good a coaching and management team as you'll find among the Premier Rugby clubs.

"London Irish does not have the resources of our West Country visitors but we believe that what we have in terms of hard work, team spirit and quality goes a long way to compensate.

"We've made real progress since September, tomorrow we have a chance to measure ourselves against a club that consistently ranks among the best in the country. We will relish that opportunity."

The Exiles name their strongest possible squad for the match, with Seilala Mapusua, Sailosi Tagicakibau and Paul Hodgson all returning to the backline.

Bob Casey will skipper an experienced pack that includes the all-international front row of Clarke Dermody, David Paice and Tonga Lea'aetoa.

Debut

Gloucester coach Dean Ryan is set to hand a Premiership debut to All Blacks prop Greg Somerville for the visit to London Irish.

Somerville made his first appearance off the bench against Calvisano and he is one of five changes to the pack.

Nick Wood, Scott Lawson, Alex Brown and Alasdair Strokosch all return for the Cherry and Whites, while in the backs Gareth Cooper and Olly Barkley also start.

"For almost the first time this season we have been in a position to put some real pressure on certain selections but that has been diluted somewhat by the illness in and around the squad," said Ryan.

"That has been an issue this week because we had certain areas that were game specific to London Irish we wanted to work on but these are two good sides, playing with a bit of confidence and who want to play rugby.

"I read very little into the fact it is the top two going head to head at this stage of the season but there is no question London Irish are a very good team.

"We have come out of Europe with this game very much in mind for that reason and are relishing the prospect."

London Irish: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Elvis Seveali'I, 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10 Peter Hewat, 9 Paul Hodgson, 1 Clarke Dermody, 2 David Paice, 3 Tonga Lea'aetoa, 4 James Hudson, 5 Bob Casey (captain), 6 Kieran Roche, 7 Steffon Armitage, 8 Chris Hala'Ufia.
Replacements: 16 Alex Corbisiero, 17 James Buckland, 18 Dan Murphy, 19 Richard Thorpe, 20 Declan Danaher, 21 Alfredo Lalanne, 22 Shane Geraghty.

Gloucester: 15 Olly Morgan, 14 Matthew Watkins, 13 Mike Tindall (c), 12 Olly Barkley, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Luke Narraway, 7 Alasdair Strokosch, 6 Peter Buxton, 5 Alex Brown, 4 Marco Bortolami, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Olivier Azam, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Will James, 19 Apo Satala, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Willie Walker, 22 Mark Foster.