Teams Up for Not Nots

[Rossm]

15 Marcus Watson (43)

14 Zach Kibirige (17)

13 Malakai Fekitoa (13)

12 Jimmy Gopperth (94)

11 Josh Bassett (117)

10 Jacob Umaga (19)

9 Dan Robson (c) (113)

1 Ben Harris (57)

2 Tommy Taylor (64)

3 Biyi Alo (9)

4 Will Rowlands (84)

5 Thibaud Flament (14)

6 Brad Shields (24)

7 Jack Willis (52)

8 Nizaam Carr (54)

 

Replacements

16 Gabriel Oghre (18)

17 Tom West (22)

18 Kieran Brookes (33)

19 Charlie Matthews (26)

20 Ben Morris (25)

21 Will Porter (17)

22 Lima Sopoaga (37)

23 Sam Spink (5)

Wales international Will Rowlands returns to the Wasps starting line-up for Sunday’s Round 12 Gallagher Premiership clash with London Irish at the Madejski Stadium (kick-off 2.30pm).

The giant lock, who was handed his first cap for Wales against France last weekend, is the only change to the Wasps starting 15 which defeated Saracens 60-10 in a Ricoh Arena, Premiership-record win in Round 11.

Kieran Brookes has recovered from a knee injury to be named among the replacements while Sam Spink is back in the matchday 23 after Michael Le Bourgeois sustained an MCL injury in the eight-try win over Saracens.

Elsewhere, Thomas Young will be out for approximately four weeks with a hamstring injury while Sione Vailanu suffered a knee issue against Leicester Tigers, which will put him out of action for approximately two months. Matteo Minozzi remains away on international duty with Italy.

Dan Robson will captain the side once again as Wasps look to build on an impressive 20 tries in the last five Premiership matches, which has seen them pick up four try-bonus points.

Wasps Interim Head Coach Lee Blackett said: “We were disappointed the previous week as we didn’t impose our game on Leicester so to fight back the way we did against Saracens was really special.

“We can’t get carried away with the result. We played really well but we know we’re up against an in-form London Irish side. Keeping our feet on the ground is the big thing this week.

“It’s a big mental test for us. We have to take the confidence from last week but we start 0-0 again and we know how difficult it’s going to be. We need to make sure we back up last week’s performance.”

[Rossm]

The oppo:

15 Tom Parton, 14 Ben Loader, 13 Curtis Rona, 12 Terrence Hepetema, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Ben Meehan, 1 Harry Elrington, 2 Motu Matu’u, 3 Ollie Hoskins, 4 Franco van der Merwe ©, 5 Adam Coleman, 6 Matt Rogerson, 7 Blair Cowan, 8 Albert Tuisue

Replacements:
16 Dave Porecki, 17 Allan Dell, 18 Sekope Kepu, 19 Steve Mafi, 20 Ben Donnell, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Bryce Campbell, 23 James Stokes

[Shugs]

I went into the cheats game worried about Harris and Alo versus Koch and Barrington. However both were outstanding. Harris has been solid for a while but we seem to have honed Alo a bit and it's telling that he's keeping JTA out (obviously due to scrum ability). It's good to see us developing players like that and if we can get it to him on the move 5 or 10 metres out he won't be stopped.