Bristol knocking on the door of Sixways

The wounded Worcester Warriors return home to Sixways this weekend where they will take on the Bristol Bears in the first clash of Round 17. 

Last week, Worcester became the latest victims of Sale Sharks who ran over Steve Diamond’s men 36-12: 

In a high scoring game, Bristol fell to London Irish 49-32 at Ashton Gate: 

As things stand, both sides are languishing in the bottom half of the table with Bristol in 10th position while Worcester occupy 12th. 

Last time the sides met was in Round 8 where Bristol enjoyed a convincing 27-5 victory at Ashton Gate: 

Bristol boss Pat Lam has made six changes from the side that slipped to defeat against London Irish: 

• Jake Kerr replaces Harry Thacker at hooker 
• Ed Holmes comes in for Joe Joyce at lock 
• Dan Thomas replaces Sam Jeffries at flank 
• Theo Strang and Callum Sheedy replace Tom Whiteley and Ioan Lloyd at scrumhalf and flyhalf respectively, with Lloyd shifting to fullback, taking over from Henry Purdy. 

Jonathan Thomas has also made several changes to his Worcester squad. Last week’s entire back-row has been replaced, making way for Joe Batley,  Matt Kvesic and Sione Vailanu. Ethan Waller also returns to the squad, taking a spot on the bench.