Leeds v Gloucester: Teams
Fijian international Seru Rabeni is set to give Leeds Carnegie a major boost with his debut against Gloucester Rugby at Headingley.
By Rachel Griffiths
Last Updated: 04/10/09 6:25pm
Fijian international Seru Rabeni is set to give Leeds Carnegie a major boost by making his debut against Gloucester Rugby at Headingley.
Number 12 Rabeni was a summer signing who initially joined Gloucester from Leicester Tigers but headed to Yorkshire when the move to Kingsholm fell through.
The Fijian is not the only former Gloucester player in the squad, with Andy Gormarsall, Jon Goodridge and Henry Paul also set to take on their old club.
Leeds are further encouraged by the return of captain Marco Wentzel to the second row following his recovery from an arm injury.
Back row Hendre Fourie is also included despite sustaining injury in Leeds' previous game against Northampton.
Continuity
Gloucester are aiming for continuity and make the trip to Leeds with an unchanged backline from their previous meeting with Saracens.
The team's trip to Vicarage Road ended in narrow defeat but head coach Bryan Redpath must have been satisfied with the performance as he has kept all but two of the squad on duty that day.
Dave Attwood and Andrew Hazell have been introduced to the starting line-up in place of Peter Buxton and Akapusi Qera respectively, who move to the bench.
"We performed better at Saracens but we need to start taking our chances," said Redpath.
"We created a few last weekend at Saracens and didn't make most of them. We should have taken them and won the game.
"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."
Leeds Carnegie: 15 Jon Goodridge, 14 Richard Welding, 13 Jonny Hepworth, 12 Seru Rabeni, 11 Lee Blackett, 10 Ceiron Thomas, 9 Andy Gomarsal, 1 Gareth Hardy, 2 Phil Nilsen, 3 Juan Gomez, 4 Erik Lund, 5 Marco Wentzel, 6 Tom Denton, 7 Hendrie Fourie, 8 Alfie To'oala.
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 Rugby: 15 Tom Voyce, 14 James Simpson-Daniel, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Rory Lawson, 1 Alasdair Dickinson, 2 Olivier Azam, 3 Paul Doran-Jones, 4 Dave Attwood, 5 Alex Brown, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 7 Andrew Hazell, 8 Adam Eustace.
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.