Wasps v Gloucester

Fourth placed Wasps have made two changes for their home clash with fifth placed Gloucester this Sunday in the Aviva Premiership.

Stephen Jones comes in at fly-half and Andrea Masi will line up at outside-centre after returning from international duty.

Nigel Davies has kept the same Gloucester side that clinched a hard fought 27-11 win at Northampton Saints last week.

On the bench they make four changes with Jim Hamilton, Koree Britton, Dave Lewis and Shane Monahan all coming in.

Wasps: 15 Hugo Southwell (c), 14 Christian Wade, 13 Andrea Masi, 12 Chris Bell, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Joe Simpson, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Sam Jones, 6 Ashley Johnson, 5 Marco Wentzel, 4 James Cannon, 3 Phil Swainston, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 Zak Taulafo.
Replacements: 16 Tom Lindsay, 17 Tim Payne, 18 Will Taylor, 19 Alex Rae, 20 Matt Everard, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Nick Robinson, 23 Elliot Daly.

Gloucester: 15 Rob Cook, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Mike Tindall (capt), 12 Tim Molenaar, 11 Jonny May, 10 Ryan Mills, 9 Dan Robson, 8 Sione Kalamafoni, 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Tom Savage, 5 Will James, 4 Lua Lokotui, 3 Rupert Harden, 2 Darren Dawidiuk, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Koree Britton, 17 Dan Murphy, 18 Yann Thomas, 19 Jim Hamilton, 20 Matt Cox, 21 Dave Lewis, 22 Shane Monahan, 23 Martyn Thomas.

What they said...

Wasps head coach Dai Young
"We played Gloucester down at Kingsholm and lost in September and while I would like to think we are a much better side now, they have definitely improved as well.

"Stats wise they have the best scrum in the league both on their ball and on opposition ball, and they have a good line-out too so they are going to try and take us on physically.

"We need to match that up front before we can think about anything else and we recognise what a huge challenge this fixture is."

Gloucester head coach Nigel Davies
"The players delivered at Northampton and we were pleased. But that was one of four big games in this block of rugby, and we've refocused straight away," he said.

"Wasps are a very good team. They've crept up from nowhere really in some respects. They're playing some really good rugby, they have some threats in their team and they work hard for each other.

"It's another big challenge, but we're in a good place to meet that challenge and we're looking forward to it."


Should be a cracker this one with 4 of the most exciting English wingers on show!

Enjoying this, Wade's footwork is amazing. I think Glos are getting a bit of luck with the ref now.

Glad to see Cook miss with that HORRENDOUS kicking stance.

I know lots of Wasps fans like Southwell for his defensive organisation, but every game he makes at least 3 or 4 mistakes that cost Wasps points. I honestly think sticking Daly there would be a better bet.

Tim Payne...why?

Big Jim Hamilton has the ball taken off him by Christian Wade

Well, that was a great game to watch.

Good game and an exciting finish.
Wasps must've breathed a sigh of relief when Tindall missed that quick conversion.

Cardiff Dave wrote:Good game and an exciting finish.
Wasps must've breathed a sigh of relief when Tindall missed that quick conversion.

Slightly worrying taht tindall was the only Glaws player with the presence of mind to try and rush. Sharples ran off to celebrate leaving the ball behind while everyone else seemed to retire to half way and wait for the kicking tee.

Blinkin awful attempt at a drop kick though.

LondonTiger wrote:Blinkin awful attempt at a drop kick though.

Think it was a mixture of overconfidence, having kicked one from in front just moments earlier, and rushing it, to get the game starting again.

Yes great result for Wasps & really enjoyed the way Glaws play the game.
Two large dynamic back rows coming together.

Moment of the game for me was when Wade stood up May & then did him on the outside for the try.

Impressed with Robson at SH for Glaws & good to see Trinder back from injury.

We did our best to chuck that game away. Credit to Glaws, but Wasps' first up tackling was woeful.

Still, it was nice to see both teams trying to run with the ball rather then endure extended bouts of aerial ping-pong.

BigTrev, it was Robson that Wade skinned for the try, but he did do May later on.

In one way to get 2 points from the game was pleasing, but how many more times will Glaws be galant losers? It was a great game and Wasps deserved the win for being more clinical, but that was a game we should have won. We needed to do more pick and goes to suck in the defence before trying to go wide.

Robson is a player who has really impressed me because he has clearly worked really hard on his basics.

For the U20's he was was quick and had an eye for the gap, but his basics were shocking. He was very slow to get the ball away from the ruck and pretty inaccurate and he blew some very promising positions. I thought he had potential, but believed he would eventually turn into a poor man's Joe Simpson.

The more I see of him, the more I think our SH stocks could be further bolstered at international level. Assuming that Youngs and Care have a good shot at going away with the Lions he could be on for a squad place in Argentina this summer.

Robson is coming on very well. He always had talent, but his basics have really come on. He's a real rival now to Dickson, Simpson and Wigglesworth and has loads of time to improve.

I think Mills is going to be a fine player to.

HongKongCherry wrote:BigTrev, it was Robson that Wade skinned for the try, but he did do May later on.

In one way to get 2 points from the game was pleasing, but how many more times will Glaws be galant losers? It was a great game and Wasps deserved the win for being more clinical, but that was a game we should have won. We needed to do more pick and goes to suck in the defence before trying to go wide.

HKC Your right. I think we were fairly lucky to get the W to be honest, we lacked control of the game & as you say it was a game for the taking for Glaws. The bonus for Wasps is that we have a number of real match winners and can win games like these. To progress we need to really manage games better. though with a small squad we are probably hitting above our weight & lack of injuries this season has been crucial.

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:

HongKongCherry wrote:BigTrev, it was Robson that Wade skinned for the try, but he did do May later on.

In one way to get 2 points from the game was pleasing, but how many more times will Glaws be galant losers? It was a great game and Wasps deserved the win for being more clinical, but that was a game we should have won. We needed to do more pick and goes to suck in the defence before trying to go wide.

HKC Your right. I think we were fairly lucky to get the W to be honest, we lacked control of the game & as you say it was a game for the taking for Glaws. The bonus for Wasps is that we have a number of real match winners and can win games like these. To progress we need to really manage games better. though with a small squad we are probably hitting above our weight & lack of injuries this season has been crucial.

I feel far better losing this game than I did last year when we were truly awful. We made plenty of mistakes, but at least we gave it a good shot. After your recent injury track record I think you deserve your luck with lack of injuries for this season and probably a few more seasons on top of that too!! Good luck for the rest of the season