Gloucester make three changes after running Premiership champions Exeter close at Sandy Park on Boxing Day.

Sale caretaker boss Paul Deacon also makes changes from the team narrowly defeated by Wasps on Boxing Day.

Skipper Jono Ross returns after three weeks out alongside England's Tom Curry in the back row.

Gloucester need to win to avoid slipping to the foot of the early season table as current backmarkers Worcester, who have lost their last five league and European matches, are expected to be awarded four points for Saturday's postponement against Harlequins.

Sale are out to end a run of three straight losses, having been beaten by Toulon and Edinburgh in the Champions Cup prior to the defeat by Wasps.

Gloucester: Moyle; Rees-Zammit, Harris, Atkinson, May; Evans, Varney; Rapava-Ruskin, Hanson, Balmain, Slater, Craig, Reid, Ludlow (capt), Ackermann.

Replacements: Walker, Seville, Ford-Robinson, Garvey, Nagle-Taylor, Venner, Twelvetrees, Thorley.

Sale: S James; Roebuck, R du Preez, Hill, Yarde; MacGinty, de Klerk; Rodd, van der Merwe, Oosthuizen, Wiese, 5. JP du Preez, Ross (capt), T Curry, D du Preez.

Replacements: Langdon, Morozov, Cooper-Woolley, Beaumont, Dugdale, Cliff, L James, McGuigan.

Referee: Christophe Ridley.

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