Davies reshuffles but Gloucester up for Thomond challenge

Gloucester director of rugby Nigel Davies looks set to abandon the principle of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ and rotate his winning squad for tomorrow’s Heineken Cup showdown with Munster at Thomond Park (6pm).

Davies watched his players, spearheaded by fly-half Billy Twelvetrees, overcome a powerful Perpignan side 27-22 at Kingsholm last Saturday in their Pool 6 opener.

Yet former Scarlets boss Davies will ring the changes and stick to a policy of using the opening two pool games to rotate his squad having informed his players a week ago that he had selected two different line-ups to face first Perpignan and then Munster.