Centre Matt Scott will make his first Gloucester appearance since early March, returning in the midfield as the Cherry and Whites make eight changes to their starting line-up for Saturday’s Aviva Premiership fixture at home to Exeter Chiefs (4pm).
 
Scott has recovered from a hamstring injury suffered while on Six Nations duty with Scotland and partners Mark Atkinson at centre.
 
Other changes to the back line see Charlie Sharples return on the right wing and a new half-back pairing where Greig Laidlaw and Billy Twelvetrees team up, Laidlaw skippering the side.
 
In the pack, Paddy McAllister returns at loosehead, Tom Savage comes in for Jeremy Thrush in the second row and there’s a youthful look to the back row as Freddie Clarke and Lewis Ludlow get the nod alongside Ben Morgan.
 
Director of rugby David Humphreys insisted that, despite Gloucester still pushing for seventh place, preparations have centred around performance and taking each game as it comes.
 
“We’ve tried not to look at the league table too much. It’s a cliché of course, but for the past five weeks we’ve been trying to get ourselves as well prepared as we can and produce performances” he said.
 
“We’ve always said that the next game is the most important game. As a management team, we’re conscious of the cup final and of the opportunities that may come from that. But it’s a huge game for us this weekend and we want to go out and respond to what was a disappointing performance last weekend.
 
“They’re an outstanding team, they have been for the last couple of seasons. Their selection has been consistent, you know they’re going to come and play and they execute their game plan so well. They’re hard to control.
 
“Our focus has been on recovering, on a short turnaround, from Bath and making sure we have a plan in place to negate their attacking threat but also to make sure that we keep the ball, use the ball and be a much bigger attacking threat than we were last weekend.”
 
Gloucester: 15 James Hook; 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Matt Scott, 12 Mark Atkinson, 11 Jonny May; 10 Billy Twelvetrees, 9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); 1 Paddy McAllister, 2 Richard Hibbard, 3 John Afoa; 4 Tom Savage, 5 Mariano Galarza; 6 Freddie Clarke, 7 Lewis Ludlow, 8 Ben Morgan. Reps: 16 Darren Dawidiuk, 17 Yann Thomas, 18 Josh Hohneck, 19 Jeremy Thrush, 20 Jacob Rowan, 21 Willi Heinz, 22 Ollie Thorley, 23 Henry Trinder.