Will Daryl Gibson start and who will partner him?

Move to 13?
By Duncan Wood
September 17 2002

Daryl Gibson's arrival from Canterbury will presumably end the debate about who to play at inside centre. If he does slot in at number 12, who will partner him? There are plenty of options.

You have to assume that Daryl Gibson will be starting the game at number 12. Unless he's desperately short of match fitness, and he played for Canterbury only a couple of weekends ago, he should be running out in the number 12 shirt at Kingsholm.

If that's the case, who will partner him in the centre?

The centres so far this season have been Martin Shaw and David Rees. Shaw hasn't received the most rapturous reception to date from the Bristol supporters but I can't help but feel that he's a bit hard done by.

When he arrived from Sale, I was one of the media who greeted him and I made a point of asking him whether he considered himself an inside or outside centre. There was no hesitation - "outside". That's where he played for Sale so he's been playing out of position so far presumably filling a gap until Gibson arrived.

Reesy has done a solid job at outside centre so far although, ironically, he scored his try against Saracens when he'd been moved onto the wing to replace Brendon Daniel. I just have a feeling that he'll be back on the wing against Gloucester.

Other contenders for the number 13 jersey are Andrew Higgins, Phil Christophers, Jamie Williams and Luke Nabaro.

Luke and Andrew both made playing comebacks for the United against Newport a week ago. They've both played plenty of games in the centre and Higgins looked very impressive towards the end of last season. I think they'll probably be given a little more time to get back to fitness.

Phil and Jamie are similar in that they can both play fullback, wing or centre although Jamie is probably the more accomplished fullback and certainly the better kicker from hand.

I think Phil will remain on the wing, where he won his England cap, and he'll be hoping that Gibson's arrival will help give him better ball to play with. To date, he's had little more than scraps.

Plenty of candidates. I have a hunch that it'll be a Gibson/ Shaw combination starting on Satruday.