Red Bulls head to Bristol

Saturday afternoons sees Newcastle Red Bulls make the trip to Bristol to take on a side buoyed by ruining Harlequins big game at Twickenham.

Bristol rotate

Bristol have rotated but still name a strong looking squad. In the pack, Joe Batley is one of the underrated performers in the second row. Fitz Harding at openside was at Durham University and came on Pat Lam's radar. They have the Fijian power of Mata at number eight.

The backs sees Harry Randall start at scrum half for the first time since injury, forming an exciting looking half back partnership with Tom Jordan. Crucially, there's no Van Rensburg in the centres for Bristol. He's been excellent for Bristol. There's a start for former Newcastle man Matias Moroni at outside centre. Kalaveti Ravouvou and his box of tricks is on one wing with Louis Rees-Zammit at full back, there's been rumours he turned down a move to Newcastle.

On the bench, there's some firepower in Gabriel Oghre, Ellis Genge and former Newcastle man Pedro Rubiolo. Genge was outstanding last week, especially as he had to come back on and played the majority of the match. There's also the experience of Rich Lane.

Red Bulls head to the south west

There's one change in the pack for Red Bulls with Tom Gordon coming in to the starting fifteen. Amanaki Mafi drops to the bench. With that change in mind, Ollie Leatherbarrow switches to number eight.

The backs remain the same. On the bench, Cameron Hutchinson replaces Max Clark. In a glimmer of good news for Red Bulls fans, the unavailable list has dropped to sixteen this week.

How do Red Bulls target this?

Bristol have some firepower in the forwards on the bench so doing the basics well and targeting the set piece is how to get at Bristol. The set piece until there were changes against Bath went well, certainly there was a huge improvement in the lineout. The aim has to be to take it to them up front. I also want to see Red Bulls compete at the breakdown and slow Bristol ball down, with Gordon, Christie and Leatherbarrow in the back row I expect this is definitely going to be happening.

I expect Sammy Arnold to be used again as much as possible to get some front foot for Red Bulls in attack. This was where they looked most dangerous against Bath with Arnold charging down the middle and quick ball creating space.

How can it go wrong?

Bristol like to play loose and with tempo. Harry Randall being back is a huge boost for them, he sets the tempo in attack and will want fast ball. Newcastle have to be on point with their kicking game and chase, if not then the likes of Ravouvou and Rees-Zammit will have a field day. The other key part of the kicking game is to make sure that kicks to touch are in the stands as anything just off the pitch and Bristol will look to play with tempo and strike from anywhere on the pitch.

Last weekend at Twickenham, especially in the first half Bristol showed some of their best attacking capabilities. If Red Bulls get sloppy in possession or loose in defence they will be punished, especially once the ball gets to the outside centre channel.