It’s a milestone for Charlie Sharples who will make his 250^th competitive appearance for Gloucester Rugby in Sunday’s Gallagher Premiership fixture at Newcastle Falcons. Lewis Ludlow also returns after injury.

It’s a significant achievement for Sharples, a one club man since his debut back in the 2007-8 season, and comes at the end of a week when it was confirmed that he’d signed a new contract to remain at Kingsholm.

Ludlow last featured in the Premiership fixture away at Wasps in the first week of October, and he comes in at openside flanker.

Other changes from the team that started last week against Exeter Chiefs see a new half back pairing in Callum Braley and Owen Williams while Tom Hudson starts at inside centre.

In the pack, Ciaran Knight comes in at tighthead in place of Fraser Balmain and Ludlow replaces Gareth Evans in the back row.

Paddy McAllister and Jaco Kriel both return to the matchday squad amongst the replacements and Ed Slater will skipper the side.

Previewing the game with the local media, Head Coach Johan Ackermann stressed that Newcastle’s current league position is misleading and that the Falcons will be a tough proposition.

“We’re playing a side who are obviously disappointed with where they are in the Premiership, and they’re going to be backs against the wall, they’re going to be fired up. They’ve won several games late on which shows how they fight to the end.

“We have to be at our best, we can’t afford to drop in our standards like we did last weekend. We’re playing away, and it’s a brilliant challenge for us to fit things after what happened against Exeter.

“It’s important that we do start travelling better. Wasps and Exeter were good wins on the road but we have to be able to do it at a tough place like Newcastle. We’re hurting after last weekend and hopefully we can fix it.”

Gloucester Rugby:

Jason Woodward; 14. Charlie Sharples, 13. Billy Twelvetrees, 12. Tom Hudson, 11. Ollie Thorley; 10. Owen Williams, 9. Callum Braley; 1. Josh Hohneck, 2. Jaco Visagie, 3. Ciaran Knight; 4. Ed Slater (capt), 5. Franco Mostert; 6. Freddie Clarke, 7. Lewis Ludlow, 8. Ben Morgan

Replacements:

Henry Walker, 17. Paddy McAllister, 18. Fraser Balmain, 19. Tom Savage, 20. Gareth Evans, 21. Willi Heinz, 22. Henry Trinder, 23. Jaco Kriel

Unavailable for selection:

Ruan Ackermann, Mark Atkinson, Matt Banahan, Danny Cipriani, Gareth Denman, Ruan Dreyer, Todd Gleave, James Hanson, Franco Marais, Tom Marshall, Jake Polledri, Val Rapava Ruskin, Will Safe, Ben Vellacott

250 up for Charlie Sharples in Gloucester Rugby’s team to take on Newcastle Falcons

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