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"Perpignan are a tough challenge up front, probably the biggest challenge we have faced all season in a scrummaging situation," said coach Dean Ryan.
"We need to pay respect to the quality of our opponents for our return visit. Only recently we saw them run all over Toulouse at home and it's the nature of Heineken Cup that every game is a top challenge.
"With the French clubs you face a lot of power at the set piece. That is one of the reasons it will be so important to have Andy Hazell back. We have a strong back row but have missed a link man, an out and out No.7, and Andy will be invaluable in Perpignan.
"The absence of Jake de Boer also hurts us, you can take 20 tackles off the tackle count when he is not here. But he will be back next week and we are getting close to being able to pick from full strength.
"We can't afford for them to turn over the ball the way they did and the ferocity of their ball carrying is a different proposition for us. Those are areas we will look to strengthen.
"We are sitting pretty at the top of the Premiership with our heads held high and we're going well in the Heineken Cup. We need to stay steady and look at things we can impact on and concentrate on those areas."
The Gloucester side will ba announced later today (Thursday 12 Dec)
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