It's also a little inaccurate to say that Gloucester are in bad "form" per se.
Their tight five (particularly their front row) is just getting absolutely battered.
Really looking forward to seeing Taumalolo... love that guy.
Half the front 5 have had very little game time. Here's the list:
Nick Wood (first-choice loosehead) is banned.
Shaun Knight (first-choice tighthead) had played 64 out of a possible 560 minutes coming into the Exeter game, having only recovered from injury the week before. All the other props have a head start and more match fitness than he.
Huia Edmonds (first-choice hooker) came back into the 23 after recovering from a 6-month long injury earlier in the week. No experience with new scrum rules, not match fit. He may not have even been fit because...
Britton and George, two of our hookers, are banned and injured respectively. This forced Edmonds into the team perhaps when he wasn't ready. Britton and George are big hookers that would undoubtedly help Gloucester out in the scrum.
Dan Murphy (second-choice loosehead) sustained a short-term injury the week before and apparently recovered in time for Exeter, but I doubt he was fully recovered if Yann Thomas was starting ahead of Dan.
James Hudson was making his Premiership debut for Glos, having not appeared for us since pre-season.
Yann Thomas/Darren Dawidiuk/Rupert Harden is not our first-team front row.