GRAEME Beveridge has backed Bristol back-rower Iain Grieve to make another bold statement when he comes up against Jerry Collins at the Memorial Stadium tonight, writes Steve Cotton.

Young No 8 Grieve, who has made just nine senior appearances for Bristol, will start against 48-cap All Black Collins when Toulon visit Bristol in their European Challenge Cup pool clash.

Grieve is steadily building a reputation as a hard-running, tough-tackling back-rower who could push for regular inclusion in Bristol's starting line-up.

And veteran scrum-half Beveridge is backing the 21-year-old to shine when he faces Collins, arguably one of the finest back-row players in world rugby, this evening.

"It's all about what we are doing – and if we can play the way we want to then hopefully guys like Jerry Collins will have to worry about us rather than us worrying about them," said Beveridge.

"I think playing someone like Collins will just spur Grievesy on.

"I think he's the kind of character who will relish that – and he will be looking for the first time Collins comes at him, maybe to sit him on his backside. That would definitely give the big crowd at the Mem a lift.

"If you started worrying about the individuals you were playing against then you would never perform to the best of your ability. You go out there, concentrate on your job – and what happens will happen."

Collins was left out of the Toulon side beaten 56-3 at home by Northampton on the opening weekend of European Challenge Cup action – and is one of 10 changes made by Tana Umaga for tonight's game.

And while Bristol head coach Richard Hill has remained level-headed during his side's winless start to the campaign, Toulon appear to be giving off very different signals this week.

"I'm sure they've had a hard time off their coach this week – and he'll be looking for a reaction," said Beveridge.

"But we're trying to concentrate more on ourselves than what Toulon are going to do.

"Nobody in our club is happy with what's happened in the last five or six weeks and we're all desperate for a win.

"But I think the only way to get out of it is to stay positive. For a few games now we've been playing some reasonable attacking rugby without finishing off the chances we've been creating.

"So we're working hard to cut out those little individual errors and maybe slightly improve the decision-making so that when we get these chances we put them away.

"It's been a difficult start to the season, none of us are happy with the situation we are in, but the way to get out of it is not to go into our shells.

"We've got to stick to our guns, keep trying to play our rugby and if we get the little bits right then we will get that first win."

Only winger Marc Andreu, centres Olivier Grimaud and Sebastien Fauque, prop Nicolas Agnesi and lock Jocelino Suta survive from last week's embarrassing defeat.

While Bristol have changed everyone with the exception of full-back Vunga Lilo, wingers Lee Robinson and Tom Arscott, fly-half Adrian Jarvis and Grieve from their 33-15 loss at Montpellier.

Montpellier scrum-half Justin Marshall was yesterday cleared by an independent disciplinary panel of a dangerous tackle on Arscott during last Friday's game.

Bristol: V Lilo; L Robinson, N Brew, E Barnes, T Arscott; A Jarvis, G Beveridge; A Clarke, M Regan, J Hobson, R Winters, N Budgett, A To'oala, J El Abd (capt), I Grieve. Reps: D Blaney, D Crompton, R Sidoli, D Ward-Smith, H Thomas, C Ashwin, L Eves.

Toulon: O Ai'i; M Andreu, O Grimaud, S Fauque, L Rooney; R Pez, N Jordaan; N Agnesi, A Muleta, A Galasso, J Suta, E Lozada, J Collins (capt), O Missoup, S Koyamaibole. Reps: P Fitzgerald, J Filitoga, Y Maestri, T Sourice, D Vidal, S Falconetti, A Giacobazzi.