By Duncan Wood
May 4 2002

Regular visitors to this site won't be surprised to hear that Dean Ryan won't name his starting XV until matchday. Leicester are also playing coy and haven't even named a squad as yet.

Bristol will welcome back some of their injured squad members for the visit of Leicester although Dean Ryan is following his usual pattern of naming a squad but not the starting XV.

Jason Little and Andrew Higgins will probably resume their centre partnership after both missed out against Gloucester. Garath Archer is also named in the squad although his back has to be a concern.

Paul Johnstone and Shane Drahm are both out for the season with knee injuries and long term injury victims Ross Beattie and Adam Vander continue to be absent. Jamie Williams has failed to recover from his knee injury.

Leicester, to my knowledge, haven't even named a squad yet. The grapevine, however, suggests that they will be resting a few players after last week's exploits against Llanelli.

The grapevine suggests that key players such as Martin Johnson, Neil Back, Austin Healey and Tim Stimpson could be rested but Will Johnson and Josh Kronfeld could return.

Bristol Shoguns squad: Payne, Crompton, White, Nelson, McCarthy, Archer, Brown, Sheridan, Short, Brownrigg, Sturnham, Lipman, Pichot, Blake, Contepomi, Carrington, Little, Higgins, Christophers, Rees, Daniel, Best.