Gallagher Premiership regular season games don’t come much bigger than Friday night’s top-of-the-table clash between Bristol Bears and Exeter Chiefs at Ashton Gate.
League leaders Bristol come into the match having won 20-7 last time the two clubs met back in January at Sandy Park, but a second string Exeter Chiefs side dramatically won 25-22 the last time they travelled up the M5 to Bristol back in August towards the end of the 2019/20 season.
With a game of such huge magnitude, rugby writer John Evely takes a closer look at who is expected to start for each side.
Bristol Bears
Backs
Bristol have their injury problems, with Pat Lam confirming three of the club’s most influential backs will miss the game on Friday night.
Fijian captain and star outside centre Semi Radradra is on the road to recovery from an ankle injury sustained against Bordeaux-Begles on Easter Sunday and should be back to face Bath but will miss the game this weekend which almost certainly means Piers O’Conor - who has still remarkably played every minute of Premiership action so far this season - will wear the 13 jersey.
Scrum half Harry Randall is out with a longer term shoulder injury meaning the in form Andy Uren will continue at nine, most likely for 80 minutes if the last three months is anything to go by.
Callum Sheedy has also been ruled out of the game after taking a late, no arms tackle last weekend against Newcastle which throws up the one big selection talking points - who will start at fly-half?
Realistically Lam has Welsh international Ioan Lloyd and England international Max Malins to choose from with both men earning their international caps at full-back but more than able to play in the 10 jersey as previously seen at the Bears.
While Lloyd stepped in to replace Sheedy when he got injured at Kingston Park, I think Lam will play last weekend’s man of the match Malins at stand-off for this big game, with the Saracens loanee having a little more experience in big game scenarios.
That would also mean Lam can unleash Charles Piutua at full-back to face Chiefs, with the former All Black being nursed through the rest of the season with his Achilles issue; but with two weekends off he will likely be used in this big game.
In that scenario poor Lloyd will be on the bench covering pretty much the entire backline.
Winger Luke Morahan looks back to his best form and Henry Purdy was rested last weekend which puts him in the driving seat to return. Siva Naulago could make a return from his knee injury which has seen him sidelined for a month but Lam said just last week there is no point risking players at 90 percent with so much quality in depth.
15 Charles Piutau
14 Luke Morahan
13 Piers O’Conor
12 Siale Piutau
11 Henry Purdy
10 Max Malins
9 Andy Uren
Forwards
Captain Steven Luatua looks set to make a return from his knee injury sustained against Harlequins last month and will slot right back in on the flank.
England internationals Nathan Hughes, Dave Attwood and Kyle Sinckler, along with Irishman Bryan Byrne, were all rested for the trip to Newcastle last weekend and look set to start against Exeter’s fearsome pack.
The big positional debate in the pack comes at openside flanker with in-form Dan Thomas likely to get the seven shirt ahead of Ben Earl who started last weekend despite the England international scoring a fine try.
I think Earl will come on early in the second half as a replacement for Hughes to provide some added dynamism in the backrow in a fascinating match up against Sam Simmonds, the Premiership’s top try scorer.
1 Jake Woolmore
2 Bryan Byrne
3 Kyle Sinckler
4 Dave Attwood
5 Chris Vui
6 Steven Luatua
7 Dan Thomas
8 Nathan Hughes
Exeter Chiefs
Backs
Rob Baxter’s selection decisions look to be all the easier coming into this game having had a relatively clean bill of health from their last two outings.
The Chiefs backline looked really dangerous in the victory over Wasps on Saturday with Scottish captain Stuart Hogg bagging two tries and fly-half Joe Simmonds really threatening the defensive line with his running game as he also darted through a gap to score.
The big selection call in the Exeter backline will be whether England winger Jack Nowell is ready to make a return to the starting XV having played his first minutes of the season last weekend in the victory over Wasps after returning from surgery on his toe and then a hamstring tear.
Nowell is known to want a chance to prove himself to the British and Irish Lions coaches to make a late bid for a place on the plane to South Africa and Rob Baxter said the ‘big’ domestic games this season will be his shop window. With all that in mind I think Facundo Cordero will drop down to the bench.
15 Stuart Hogg
14 Jack Nowell
13 Henry Slade
12 Ollie Devoto
11 Tom O’Flaherty
10 Joe Simmonds (capt)
9 Jack Maunder;
Forwards
Rob Baxter knows his strongest pack and this is it. It is hard to see him tinkering with it too much, with Jonny Gray likely to come in for his fellow Scotland international Sam Skinner as the only change from the starting eight which got the better of Wasps.
That said the Exeter director of rugby made a big call against Leinster by starting props Tomas Francis and Ben Moon, rather than England internationals Alec Hepburn and Harry Williams and in midweek Baxter said who starts and who finishes in the frontrow makes little difference as all four props in a matchday squad play an equally important role.
Either way he goes, the frontrow is going to be strong, and will need to be against Bristol who are equally fearsome in the scrum.
1 Alec Hepburn,
2 Luke Cowan-Dickie
3 Harry Williams,
4Jonny Gray
5 Jonny Hill
6 Dave Ewers
7 Jacques Vermeulen
8 Sam Simmonds
