Gloucs v Newcastle: Teams

Gloucester coach Dean Ryan makes a number of changes following his side's crushing 23-9 defeat at Sale on Friday.

Olly Morgan comes off the bench to start at full-back with Iain Balshaw switching to the wing in place of Lesley Vainikolo, while Olly Barkley moves to stand-off with Mike Tindall back in the centre.

Gareth Cooper returns as scrum-half in favour of Rory Lawson while there are also three changes to the pack.

Scotland international hooker Scott Lawson makes his debut at the expense of Olivier Azam, Nick Wood returns at loose-head prop in place of David Young while Alasdair Strokosch comes in on the openside flank in place of Andy Hazell.

"With a turn-around like the one we face, we have to explore other options for this contest and that is what we have done," said Ryan.

"We have to try and get ourselves in the right areas of the field more consistently and reduce our error count to be as effective as we know we can be.

"We did some good things on Friday against Sale but probably in areas of the field that diluted their effectiveness."

Newcastle make three changes from the side that defeated Bristol on Friday night with Ollie Phillips replacing injured winger John Rudd, who picked up a knock when scoring the second try at Kingston Park.

Hall Charlton comes in for James Grindal at scrum-half while Micky Ward starts at loosehead prop in favour of Joe McDonnell, who takes his place on the bench.

"Such a short turn-around does pose enormous challenges for us in terms of not having any real time to train with the players, but having said that Gloucester also played on Friday so we just have to get on with it and prepare as best we can," said director of rugby Steve Bates.

Gloucester: 15 Olly Morgan; 14 James Simpson-Daniel, 13 Matthew Watkins, 12 Mike Tindall (capt), 11 Iain Balshaw; 10 Olly Barkley, 9 Gareth Cooper; 1 Nick Wood, 2 Scott Lawson, 3 Alasdair Dickinson, 4 Marco Bortolami, 5 Alex Brown, 6 Peter Buxton, 7 Alasdair Strokosch, 8 Luke Narraway.

Replacements: 16 Olivier Azam, 17 David Young, 18 Apo Satala, 19 Andy Hazell, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Willie Walker, 22 Mark Foster.

Newcastle: 15 Steve Jones, 14 Tim Visser, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Tom May, 11 Ollie Phillips, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Hall Charlton, 1 Micky Ward, 2 Matt Thompson, 3 Carl Hayman, 4 Andy Perry, 5 Mark Sorenson, 6 Adam Balding, 7 Ed Williamson, 8 Phil Dowson (captain)

Replacements: 16 Andy Long, 17 Joe McDonnell, 18 Tim Swinson, 19 Russell Winter, 20 Micky Young, 21 Spencer Davey, 22 Rory Clegg