New Wales star Rees-Zammit to start Premiership derby for Gloucester

Fresh from scoring the match-winning try for Wales in the Guinness Six Nations last Saturday at Murrayfield, Louis Rees-Zammit has been included in the Gloucester starting line-up for their Gallagher Premiership derby at Bath on Friday night.    

Rees-Zammit returned from international duty telling club boss George Skivington that he wanted to be involved ahead of his return to Wales for their February 27 Six Nations clash with England.  

Skivington said on Wednesday: “Zam is back training with us this week. The first thing he said was, ‘Let’s get into Bath and let’s try and beat Bath on Friday night’. That is a credit to him.”

Jamie Roberts joins Ryan Wilson on the latest RugbyPass Offload

Video Player is loading.

Play Video

PlaySkip BackwardSkip Forward

Unmute

Current Time 0:00

/

Duration 0:00

Loaded: 0%

Stream Type LIVE

Seek to live, currently behind liveLIVE

Remaining Time -0:00

 

1x

Playback Rate

Chapters

• Chapters

Descriptions

• descriptions off, selected

Captions

• captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
• captions off, selected

Audio Track

Fullscreen

This is a modal window.

The Video Cloud video was not found.

Error Code: VIDEO_CLOUD_ERR_VIDEO_NOT_FOUND

Session ID: 2025-08-21:ecf6c164645f0ed94b4ced87 Player Element ID: brightcove-embedded-video

OK

Close Modal Dialog

Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.

Text

ColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-Transparent

Text Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent

Caption Area Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaque

Font Size

50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%

Text Edge Style

NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop shadow

Font Family

Proportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps

ResetDone

Close Modal Dialog

End of dialog window.

Close Modal Dialog

This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

Jamie Roberts joins Ryan Wilson on the latest RugbyPass Offload

Now Welsh wonder Rees-Zammit has been chosen to play and he takes his place in a Gloucester backline that also includes Scotland midfielder Chris Harris at centre and Italy scrum-half Stephen Varney on the bench as back-up to Willi Heinz.   

Lock Ed Slater is also back in the mix for bottom of the table Gloucester who had the threat of relegation removed last week when Premiership officials decided to run a 13-team competition in 2021/22.

The inside track from Gloucester on the intriguing Rees-Zammit vs May head-to-head on the wing which has the potential to hog the attention when Wales host England on February 27#SixNations #WALvENG #PremRugby

https://t.co/0tVOPaxISx

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 18, 2021

“They’re not a bad team,” said Skivington of Bath. “They were in the top four last year, but they have not had the start they would have wanted, similar to us. They have been established for a good while and for them it’s just about finding their feet and getting a bit of momentum. 

“I expect them to be fully charged up for the weekend so it should be a good match. They have got threats all over the park and have a well-organised set-piece. They have got a good backline and Rhys Priestland runs it well so it is about how do you stop it and how you deal with it than anything else, but I know they are a good team.”

Wales back row Taulupe Faletau is one of two changes for Bath after their win at Sale, winger Will Muir their other switch.

BATH: 15. Tom de Glanville; 14. Semesa Rokodoguni, 13. Max Clark, 12. Josh Matavesi, 11. Will Muir; 10. Rhys Priestland, 9. Ben Spencer; 1. Juan Schoeman, 2. Tom Dunn, 3. Christian Judge, 4. Josh Bayliss, 5. Mike Williams, 6. Taulupe Faletau, 7. Miles Reid, 8. Zach Mercer. Rep: 16. Jack Walker, 17. Jamie Bhatti, 18. Henry Thomas, 19. Tom Ellis, 20. Ethan Staddon, 21. Will Chudley, 22. Tian Schoeman, 23. Jonathan Joseph.

GLOUCESTER: 15. Jason Woodward; 14. Louis Rees-Zammit, 13. Chris Harris, 12. Tom Seabrook, 11. Ollie Thorley; 
10. Billy Twelvetrees, 9. Willi Heinz; 1. Val Rapava-Ruskin, 2. Henry Walker, 3. Fraser Balmain, 4. Ed Slater, 5. Alex Craig, 6. Jordy Reid, 7. Lewis Ludlow (capt), 8. Ruan Ackermann. Reps: 16. Santiago Socino, 17. Alex Seville, 18. Jamal Ford-Robinson, 19. Ollie Atkins, 20. Freddie Clarke, 21. Stephen Varney, 22. George Barton, 23. Henry Trinder.

Gloucester insist relegation being scrapped hasn't changed their plans. https://t.co/PoWgRYMDde

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 13, 2021