The tournament favourites head to Bristol hoping to maintain their 100% record after a comprehensive 37-17 win over Harlequins last weeknend.

The West Country outfit lost to rivals Cardiff Blues 34-18 on matchday one and will be looking to bounce back immediately at the Memorial Stadium.

While Stade are a formidable side at home, their form on the road can be best described as patchy as they failed to win a single game away from home in the Heineken Cup last season.

Bristol Rugby Head Coach Richard Hill makes several changes to his starting line up to face Stade Francais on Sunday, some tactical and some enforced by injury.

One tactical change sees the return of Samoan international winger David Lemi on the wing. Lemi has been the subject of the club’s main marketing campaign in recent weeks depicted in cartoon format as “The Rocket Man”. His attacking threat will be welcome.

However, last weekend’s defeat in the opening round of Heineken Cup action at Cardiff was a tough one in terms of injuries as both skipper Matt Salter and Nathan Budgett are ruled out this weekend.

Salter will miss just a couple of weeks but Budgett is more serious according to Hill:

“Budge has fractured a cartilage in his windpipe, so he is having an operation on that and that will be a three-month injury. That’s a big blow to us and we were forewarned that when you play these big Heineken Cup matches, because of the intensity, you do pick up injuries – and, lo and behold, in the first game we play we have lost two players.”

Andrew Blowers moves to blindside to replace Salter with Dan Ward-Smith taking over from the former All Black at number eight. Roy Winters replaces Budgett in the second row.

Hill also makes changes to his backline with Luke Arscott and Neil Brew both available again after injury. Arscott starts at full back with David Hill reverting to fly half and Brew replaces Sam Cox.