Gloucester return to Heineken Champions Cup action on Sunday with Connacht the visitors to Kingsholm.

In the first of a double-header against the Irish side, the Cherry and Whites make three changes to their starting line-up for a match which will also see Callum Braley in line to make his 100th competitive appearance for the club.

All of the changes to the side that started at Harlequins last weekend are in the pack. Fraser Balmain comes in for Jamal Ford-Robinson, Gerbrandt Grobler for Alex Craig and Jake Polledri for Lewis Ludlow.

Italian international scrum-half Braley is named among the replacements and, should he be used, will make his 100 competitive appearance for Gloucester.

The Cherry and Whites have pushed both Toulouse and Montpellier hard in the first two rounds of pool action, and will consider themselves unlucky to only come away with two losing bonus points from those encounters.

Connacht have also been competitive in the first two rounds and Gloucester head coach Johan Ackermann is more than aware that his team will have a fight on their hands at Kingsholm and at the Sportsground the following week.

"They’ve got a lot of confidence from their current form and they’ve got a lot to play for with one win and one loss,” he said.

"So, we’ll see how we go on Sunday. Then you normally assess what went well and what didn’t. It’s a bit of a chess game in a way, because they will obviously try and fix some things ahead of the second game and we will have to plan around that.

"Andy Friend has done a great job there since he took over. They’ve built a good squad and developed some players for Ireland. And you don’t beat the likes of Montpellier if you haven’t got a lot of fight in your team as well as good players.

"They were also in the Toulouse game for a long time, and that was away from home. So, they’re a quality outfit and we have to be up there if we want to win."

Gloucester: 15. Tom Marshall; 14. Louis Rees-Zammit, 13. Chris Harris, 12. Mark Atkinson, 11. Ollie Thorley; 10. Danny Cipriani, 9. Joe Simpson; 1. Val Rapava-Ruskin, 2. Franco Marais, 3. Fraser Balmain; 4. Gerbrandt Grobler, 5. Franco Mostert; 6. Ruan Ackermann, 7. Jake Polledri, 8. Ben Morgan (capt). Replacements: 16. Todd Gleave, 17. Josh Hohneck, 18. Jamal Ford-Robinson, 19. Alex Craig, 20. Lewis Ludlow, 21. Callum Braley, 22. Billy Twelvetrees, 23. Matt Banahan. Unavailable for selection: Ruan Dreyer, Corné Fourie, James Hanson, Willi Heinz, Jaco Kriel, Ed Slater, Henry Trinder, Owen Williams, Jason Woodward