MIKE Tindall and Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu will share Gloucester's fly-half duties at London Irish tomorrow.

Head coach Bryan Redpath said the midfield duo will interchange between outside-half and centre for Gloucester's LV=Cup clash.

The Gloucester squad held a goal-kicking competition this week – and former England centre Tindall and wing James Simpson-Daniel came up trumps.

Tindall has kicked at goal for Gloucester in the past, notably against Worcester at Kingsholm in 2006 while Ryan Lamb was in the sin-bin.

The 33-year-old landed two penalties in that 27-16 Premiership victory, and will probably now take up the goal-kicking duties at the Madejski Stadium (kick-off 3pm).

The Cherry and Whites need to beat Irish, probably with a bonus point, and hope Sale see off Llanelli Scarlets in order to secure a semi-final spot.

Gloucester are missing 12 players through internationals, and are short on available backs.

Redpath said: "Mike's kicking game gets overlooked sometimes, he put that grubber through against Toulouse for Jonny May to chase that led to Charlie Sharples' try.

"There's no extra pressure on the midfield, the key thing is that we play with confidence and clear understanding as well.

"Sometimes if you play in a different position you can get caught in two minds, but we've got to be really focused on what we're aiming to do and try to make sure the team benefits and that we don't just look for sevens-style rugby really.

"Mike has a more varied kicking game than Eli, so potentially one of those two will play ten, and they will interchange quite a lot as a ten and kicking option, with Tom Voyce too.

"We've only got eight backs training at the moment, and we need ten for the squad, so it's going to be tricky.

"But it's just something we've got to get on with and the Scarlets game will determine the outcome of us proceeding or not.

"But we've just got to go down there, shrug off the pressure and try to win the game.

"We've picked up some little injuries along the way, with Henry Trinder, Olly Morgan and Timmy Taylor injured as well, and that has a knock-on effect.

"So we'll see what we can muster up, and we'll do the best with what we've got, but we're not looking for any excuses.

"Potentially there are some people we can draw in and there's some youngsters we can bring into the mix too.

"And there's been a few forwards who have put their hands up for certain positions, so you can imagine that's been an exciting chat for them.

"We've just got to get on with it, it's not the end of the world, and if we don't have our full ten backs out there, that's the way it will be.

"We just need to go out there and enjoy it, not with a huge amount of pressure, but we've got to keep the pride as holders of the LV=Cup.

"We want to try to make a good game of rugby of it."

Redpath explained Tindall and Simpson-Daniel – who started out life as a fly-half – were the stand-out performers in the inter-squad goal-kicking challenge, as long as he discounted himself.

He said: "Let's just hope we don't have too many kicks at goal. We had a kicking competition yesterday and we've firmly come out of it that I should be kicking, but that's a non-starter!

"But surprisingly James Simpson-Daniel and Mr Tindall were up there vying for number one slot.

"Mike has kicked before, and also he kicks out of hand well too. It just means he'll have to put a bit more thought into it if he kicks at goal.

"If we have to win a game with a kick at goal in the last play of the game, there would be some smiles going around!"