Aviva Premiership: London Welsh v Gloucester match preview

London Welsh’s search for a first win since their return to the Aviva Premiership stretches to a fourth week as Gloucester make the trip to the Kassam Stadium for a Friday night showdown.

Justin Burnell’s Exiles currently prop up the Premiership table but can take some consolation after narrowly avoiding matching Beford’s unwanted record of conceding in excess of 50 points in three successive matches.

A 46-8 reverse at the hands of Sale last time out kept them out of the record books, but still offered little promise for Burnell, who hopes the home support could spur his side on.

“The first few games have been really tough for us - we’ve got some obvious errors to rectify,” he told the club’s official website.

“But we’re looking forward to being back at the Kassam Stadium and getting our loyal band of supporters’ right behind us. We’re back at home and that’s important.

“As a group, the coaches, management and players all felt our performance in our first home game of the season against Exeter was unacceptable – we let a lot of people down. We’ll be looking to address that on Friday.”

Gloucester have themselves made a stuttering start the new campaign with one win from three, their most recent defeat coming in a hard-fought clash with Exeter at Kingsholm last Friday.

As they go in search of a first away win of the season, head coach Laurie Fisher insists Gloucester are very much a work in progress.

Fisher encouraged

"It's just that general trying to add bits and pieces to our game, trying to get comfortable with how each other plays, get comfortable with the style we're trying to play,” he told the club’s official website.

"Each week we're learning. I honestly think that it was our best performance of the year so far against Exeter, so I'm encouraged by the direction we're going. That said, we've still got things to work on.”

Ahead of Gloucester’s arrival in Oxford, Burnell has made four changes to the Welsh side which bowed to the Sharks in Round Three.

Injuries to Tim Molenaar and Seb Stegmann see captain Tom May and Rhys Crane come into the starting XV.

Up front, Lachlan McCaffrey moves from No 8 to blindside flanker in place of the injured Peter Browne, with Ollie Stedman coming in to complete the back row.

Meanwhile, Matt Kvesic, Dan Robson and Elliott Stooke will make their first Premiership starts of the season for Gloucester.

All three featured as replacements in the narrow 22-25 reverse to the Chiefs, but come in to the run-on side in place of Ross Moriarty, Greig Laidlaw and Tom Savage respectively.

London Welsh: 15 Seb Jewell, 14 Rhys Crane, 13 Nic Reynolds, 12 Tom May (capt), 11 Nick Scott, 10 Olly Barkley, 9 Piri Weepu, 1 Ricky Reeves, 2 Koree Britton, 3 Taione Vea, 4 Dean Schofield, 5 James Down, 6 Lachlan McCaffrey, 7 Richard Thorpe, 8 Ollie Stedman.
Replacements: 16 Nathan Morris, 17 Shane Cahill, 18 Jack Gilding, 19 Matt Corker, 20 Ben Pienaar, 21 Rob Lewis, 22 Tristan Roberts, 23 James Lewis.

Gloucester: 15 Rob Cook; 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Henry Purdy, 12 Billy Twelvetrees (capt), 11 Jonny May; 10 James Hook, 9 Dan Robson; 1 Dan Murphy, 2 Richard Hibbard, 3 John Afoa; 4 Elliott Stooke, 5 Tom Palmer; 6 Sione Kalamafoni, 7 Matt Kvesic, 8 Ben Morgan
Replacements: 16 Aleki Lutui, 17 Yann Thomas, 18 Sila Puafisi, 19 James Hudson, 20 Ross Moriarty, 21 Greig Laidlaw, 22 Mark Atkinson, 23 Tom Isaacs