'Bulldozer' to welcome Gloucester
Seru Rabeni is expected to make his first start of the season for Leeds Carnegie as Neil Back’s men welcome, ironically, Gloucester to Headingley.
Rabeni joined Leeds this summer having initially joined Gloucester from Leicester. However, when the move to Kingsholm fell through he moved to Yorkshire to join up with his former Tigers coaches Neil Back and Andy Key.
Leeds are also boosted by the return of captain Marco Wentzel in the second row whilst back row Hendre Fourie is included despite going off injured last week at Northampton.
The Leeds team includes three former Gloucester players as well as Rabeni with Andy Gomarsall, Jon Goodridge and Henry Paul all coming up against their old club.
Gloucester Rugby have opted as far as possible for continuity for this Sunday’s clash – naming an unchanged backline from last weekend’s game at Saracens but changing a couple of faces in the pack.
The trip to Vicarage Road last weekend may have ended in a narrow defeat but there was enough in the performance to satisfy Bryan Redpath that the team are heading in the right direction.
As such, he keeps faith with the majority of the side on duty that day with only Dave Attwood and Andrew Hazell introduced to the starting line up.
They come in for Peter Buxton and Akapusi Qera respectively, both of whom move to the bench.
Head Coach Bryan Redpath acknowledged that the performance at Saracens had been an improvement but that Leeds will be a tough ask.
“We performed better at Saracens but we need to start taking our chances. We created a few last weekend at Saracens and didn’t make the most of them. We should have taken them and won the game.”
“But I know that they (Leeds) have targeted this game as a win, they’ve said so in the press. So, we’ve got a big driver.”
“I like the underdog status, I like people knocking us. I like the fact that we get criticised that we have to put our chins up and stick our chests out and get on with it and not curl up and hide.”
“Leeds will be up for it. We respect them but we have to respect ourselves as well and have to go up there with the right mentality. The first 20 minutes will be very tough and we’ll have to work hard and be smart.”
Gloucester have won their last four games against Leeds since the Yorkshiremen’s 33-15 victory at Kingsholm on 9 April 2005. Gloucester have not lost at Headingley Carnegie since December 2003.
Leeds Carnegie have yet to open their winning account for season 2009/10, and have in fact won just one of their past 21 matches in the Guinness Premiership since October 2007: 16-15 at home to Newcastle on 21 March 2008.
Gloucester Rugby’s only victory in their last eight encounters in all competitions was 24-5 at home to Bath in round one. Gloucester have won just one of their last nine away matches since a 29-10 score at Bristol on 27 December.
The teams:
Leeds Carnegie: 15 Jon Goodridge, 14 Richard Welding, 13 Jonny Hepworth, 12 Seru Rabeni, 11 Lee Blackett, 10 Ceiron Thomas, 9 Andy Gomarsall, 8 Alfie To’oala, 7 Hendrie Fourie, 6 Tom Denton, 5 Marco Wentzel (captain), 4 Erik Lund, 3 Juan Gomez, 2 Phil Nilsen, 1 Gareth Hardy.
Replacements: 16 Vili Ma’asi, 17 Alex Moreno, 18 Tommy McGee, 19 Calum Clark, 20 Rhys Oakley, 21 Scott Mathie, 22 Henry Paul, 23 Luther Burell.
Gloucester: 15 Tom Voyce, 14 James Simpson-Daniel, 13 Mike Tindall (captain), 12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Rory Lawson, 8 Adam Eustace, 7 Andrew Hazell, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Alex Brown, 4 Dave Attwood, 3 Paul Doran-Jones 2 Olivier Azam, 1 Alasdair Dickinson.
Replacements: 16 Darren Dawiduik, 17 Shaun Knight, 18 Pierre Capdevielle, 19 Peter Buxton, 20 Akapusi Qera, 21 Dave Lewis, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Olly Morgan.
Date: Saurday 02 October
Venue: Headingley
Time: 15.00 (14.00 GMT)
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth (14th Premiership game)
