By New Cherry
January 13 2023

George Skivington means business this time as the team he rates as the best in Europe arrive at Kingsholm for a 1.00 kick off on Saturday. Leinster showed what they were capable of when they hammered a young Cherry and White side 57-0 in the first game of the European Champions  Cup. Hopefully, it will be a  better contest this week. 

The pack is about as strong as it can get with George McGuigan making his Euro home debut alonsgide Val Rapava-Ruskin and Kirill Gotovtsev. Freddie Clarke and Matias Alemanno will be the locks with Ruan Ackermann, Ben Morgan and Lewis Ludlow in the back-row.

Seb Atkinson returns at centre alongside Chris Harris with bang in form Ollie Thorley on one wing and Jonny May on the other.

And a big day for Seb Blake who will be on the bench just a week after making his  Premiership debut.

Gloucs: 15. George Barton 14. Jonny May 13. Chris Harris 12. Seb Atkinson 11. Ollie Thorley 10. Santiago Carreras 9. Ben Meehan 1. Val Rapava-Ruskin 2. George McGuigan 3. Kirill Gotovtsev 4. Freddie Clarke 5. Matias Alemanno 6. Ruan Ackermann 7. Lewis Ludlow (capt) 8. Ben Morgan.

Reps: 16. Seb Blake 17. Harry Elrington 18. Ciaran Knight 19. Cam Jordan 20. Jack Clement 21. Stephen Varney 22. Billy Twelvetrees 23. Tom Seabrook.

Leinster: 15. Hugo Keenan  14. Jordan Larmour 13. Garry Ringrose (Capt) 12. Jamie Osborne 11. Jimmy O’Brien 10. Ross Byrne 9. Jamison Gibson-Park 1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Ross Molony 5. James Ryan 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris.

Reps: 16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Michael Milne 18. Cian Healy 19. Brian Deeny 20. Jack Conan 21. Nick McCarthy 22. Harry Byrne 23. Liam Turner.