LIAM Middleton is ready to open up Bristol's squad and start rotating his players to ensure they are all firing by the time the Championship play-offs come around.
The Bristol head coach has made six changes for tomorrow's home clash with bottom-of-the-table Esher ? with Matty James handed his first start since November.
Skipper Iain Grieve, George Watkins, Rhys Lawrence, Wayne Thompson and Mariano Sambucetti also return to the starting line-up as Middleton begins to look at the bigger picture of the play-offs.
But he is also wary of the strength of the Championship from top to bottom and will guard against making too many changes at once.
"I want to start to see some other guys play a little bit more before the play-offs, so I can make my mind up on what options we've got," said Middleton.
"But this league is too competitive to make more changes than you need to. We've probably made three or four changes per week, but those have generally been forced changes through injury or trying to keep guys fresh.
"We might see a little bit more in the next couple of weeks, which we will do in order to give guys an opportunity to put themselves forward ahead of the play-offs.
"We know we can't go through six play-off pool games using the same 22 players ? that just doesn't work.
"You also want all your players to be battle-hardened by the time the play-offs come round, so with a few guys in the squad we will just be trying to top-up their game-time."
Bristol have won six successive Championship games since losing at Moseley in November, including wins over potential play-off rivals Cornish Pirates, Leeds, Bedford and Nottingham. But Middleton is wary of an Esher side who have drawn with London Welsh and beaten Rotherham in their last two outings, even if they remain firmly rooted to the bottom of the table.
"I think they will be tough opposition," he said. "As far as I can tell, they've got some loan players who have returned from Harlequins and Wasps, which has strengthened them.
"Teams take their eye off the ball over Christmas, which I think London Welsh and maybe Rotherham did. That's not to discredit Esher ? they have got a few more players and a lot more confidence ? and even when we played them down there I thought they were quite tough to beat.
"Interestingly, they don't seem to lose many games by big margins, they are a very competitive side who have just been on the wrong side of results. They, perhaps, just hadn't learned how to win games, but in the last week or so they have.
"It's important for us to start with the right pace and to make an accurate start. If they get their tails up, they are going to reference their last two games and think 'we've got a chance here'. We've just got to make sure we don't give them any opportunity to get their confidence going."
Bristol: S Marsden; G Watkins, F Otto, J Fatialofa, J Goodridge; M James, R Tipuna; D Crompton, R Lawrence, W Thompson, M Sambucetti, G Townson, J Ovens, J Merriman, I Grieve (capt). Reps: R Johnston, M Irish, R Winters, M Mama, T Slater, T Roberts, W Helu.
Esher: R Chisholm; A Wright, T Cheeseman (capt), A Cruickshanks, C Walker; M Atkinson, J MacKenzie; C Zeiss, J Campbell, W Collier, I Kench, C Matthews, T Alexander, P Synnott, M MacFarlane. Reps: R Nebbett, S Renwick, C Goodman, K Corrigan, G Griffiths, N Little, A Garner.
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