AUSTRALIAN Billy Meakes will make his first Gloucester start when Brive visit Kingsholm in the first round of the European Rugby Challenge Cup on Thursday.
Meakes has been a regular in the Gloucester first team squad since joining the club in February, and was a star of the club's Sevens exploits in the summer, but will get his first start alongside Billy Twelvetrees in midfield.
His inclusion is one of just three changes to the side that started at Saracens last Saturday as Gloucester kick off their European campaign.
The other new faces are Yann Thomas, who, although he has featured in all six Premiership matches, makes his first start of the season at loose head, and James Hudson who returns in the second row.
Gloucester will be looking to build on a series of improving performances in the Aviva Premiership.
That won't be straightforward against an unfamiliar opponent in Brive, a fact acknowledged this week by director of rugby David Humphreys.
"The difficulty this week is that we don't know what sort of team Brive are going to send across. They've come off the back of some tough Top 14 games.
"We don't know the opposition as well as we do every week in the Premiership. So we've focused very much on ourselves and about how we're going to play.
"It is difficult coming off the back of a five day-turnaround and two such tough games. But, at the same time, both teams are in the same situation so we've just got to go out and treat it as we would any normal game.
"We're excited about the new competition, we're excited about a different style of play. We're excited about what are probably going to be different challenges and pressures. We're looking forward to it.”
Gloucester Rugby: Rob Cook; Charlie Sharples, Billy Meakes, Billy Twelvetrees (capt), Jonny May; James Hook, Greig Laidlaw; Yann Thomas, Richard Hibbard, John Afoa; Tom Savage, James Hudson; Sione Kalamafoni, Matt Kvesic, Ben Morgan Replacements: Darren Dawidiuk, Nick Wood, Sila Puafisi, Elliott Stooke, Ross Moriarty, Dan Robson, Billy Burns, Mark Atkinson
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