Gloucester make the trip down the M5 to take on the Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park in the Aviva Premiership on Sunday and make four changes to their starting line-up.

It’s round 19 of the Premiership and Gloucester have everything to play for as they look to keep up their push for a possible play-off spot and Champions Cup qualification.

It’s the third away game in a row for the Cherry and Whites following victories at London Irish in the Premiership and Connacht in the European Rugby Challenge Cup.

Two of the four changes are injury related. Val Rapava Ruskin and Jason Woodward are replaced by Josh Hohneck and Tom Hudson respectively.
Meanwhile, Tom Savage and Ruan Ackermann come in for Jeremy Thrush and Ross Moriarty.

If Billy Twelvetrees takes the field, it will be his 150th competitive appearance for the club, a notable achievement for one of Gloucester’s most consistent performers over the past few seasons.

Reflecting on last weekend’s win at Connacht and looking ahead to the trip to Exeter, head coach Johan Ackermann knows that his side will need to perform at their best on Sunday.

“Personally, I’m proud of the character shown by the players in Connacht,” he said. “Hopefully, collectively as a team, the players will take confidence from that. It was a tough encounter and it’s never easy to travel and take on a team like Connacht.

“But we’ll have to be a lot better on Sunday at Exeter. We’re not happy with our inconsistency at the moment. It cost us against Newcastle, it cost us in the draw against Wasps.

“It’s water under the bridge and we don’t want to look back on it. But, then again, you look at how badly we started at London Irish and we were up and down as well at Connacht. We made it quite hard for ourselves.

“Exeter won’t let you get away with that. You give them a 17-0 start like we did at London Irish and you’re going to have a long day coming back from that. Our whole performance, for the whole 80 minutes against the defending champions, will have to be a much improved one.”

Gloucester: 15. Tom Hudson; 14. Charlie Sharples, 13. Henry Trinder, 12. Mark Atkinson, 11. Tom Marshall; 10. Owen Williams, 9. Willi Heinz (capt); 1. Josh Hohneck, 2. James Hanson, 3. John Afoa; 4. Tom Savage, 5. Ed Slater; 6. Ruan Ackermann, 7. Lewis Ludlow, 8. Ben Morgan. Replacements: 16. Motu Matu’u, 17. Paddy McAllister, 18. Fraser Balmain, 19. Jeremy Thrush, 20. Jake Polledri, 21. Callum Braley, 22. Billy Burns, 23. Billy Twelvetrees. Unavailable for selection: Lloyd Evans, Richard Hibbard, Henry Purdy, Val Rapava Ruskin, Jacob Rowan, Ollie Thorley, Jason Woodward.