Sale Sharks v Gloucester: Aviva Premiership preview
Sunday 29 March 2015 13:51, UK
Mark Cueto will make his 300th appearance for Sale Sharks in Sunday’s Aviva Premiership contest with Gloucester at the AJ Bell Stadium.
The former England winger hangs up his boots at the end of the season and will attempt to sign off in style as the Sharks chase a top-four spot.
Director of rugby Steve Diamond has made three changes to the team that were beaten by Bath earlier this month.
Andrei Ostrikov partners Nathan Hines in the second row, Ross Harrison comes in at loosehead while Josh Beaumont is preferred to Magnus Lund at No 8.
Gloucester were held to a thrilling 33-33 draw with Northampton in round 17 and David Humphreys makes eight changes to his starting line-up.
Brendan Macken will make his first start after joining on loan from Leinster and partners captain Billy Twelvetrees in midfield, while prop Nick Wood makes his first appearance since January after recovering from injury.
The pair feature in a youthful backline which sees Junior World Championship winners Billy Burns and Callum Braley named at full-back and scrum-half respectively.
Elliott Stooke and Tom Palmer form a new look second row pairing, and they will be backed up by James Hudson and Mariano Galarza, the latter featuring in a matchday squad for the first time.
Gloucester: 15 Billy Burns, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Brendan Macken, 12 Billy Twelvetrees (c), 11 Jonny May, 10 James Hook, 9 Callum Braley; 1 Nick Wood, 2 Richard Hibbard, 3 John Afoa, 4 Elliott Stooke, 5 Tom Palmer, 6 Tom Savage, 7 Matt Kvesic, 8 Sione Kalamafoni.
Replacements: 16 Darren Dawidiuk, 17 Yann Thomas, 18 Sila Puafisi, 19 Mariano Galarza, 20 James Hudson, 21 Dan Robson, 22 Bill Meakes, 23 Ross Moriarty.
Sale Sharks: 15 Mike Haley, 14 Tom Arscott, 13 Johnny Leota, 12 Sam Tuitupou, 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Chris Cusiter; 1 Ross Harrison, 2 Tommy Taylor, 3 Vadim Cobilas, 4 Andrei Ostrikov, 5 Nathan Hines, 6 Dan Braid (c), 7 Dave Seymour, 8 Josh Beaumont.
Replacements: 16 Cameron Neild, 17 Eifion Lewis Roberts, 18 Ciaran Parker, 19 Jonathan Mills, 20 Magnus Lund, 21 Will Cliff, 22 Joe Ford, 23 Tom Brady.
