HEAD Coach Bryan Redpath has named a strong looking side for the opening preseason friendly of the summer against the Scarlets (kick off 3pm, Saturday August 14th, Kingsholm).

After several weeks of hard training plus a training camp in Portugal, it's down to competitive action for Gloucester with a challenging opener against the side from West Wales.

With several players having been absent on international training camps this week with England and Scotland, Redpath has opted to use the players who have been training with Gloucester all week but it is still a side packed with first team experience.

Summer signing from the Leicester Tigers Brett Deacon will be making his first start for Gloucester with fellow new recruit Matt Cox named amongst the replacements.

There's an opportunity for youngsters like Jordi Pasqualin and Darren Dawidiuk to stake a claim whilst England U18 centre Ryan Mills, who featured in the recent JP Morgan Asset Management Sevens side, is also named on the bench.

Gloucester:Freddie Burns; Charlie Sharples, Tim Molenaar, Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, Lesley Vainikolo; Tim Taylor, Jordi Pasqualin; Nick Wood, Darren Dawidiuk, Pierre Capdevielle; Will James, Alex Brown; Peter Buxton (capt), Akapusi Qera, Brett Deacon Replacements: Olivier Azam, Rupert Harden, Yann Thomas, Alasdair Dickinson, Dave Attwood, Andrew Hazell, Matt Cox, Dave Lewis, Nicky Robinson, Jonny May, Ryan Mills.