Team for Ulster - ECC

[wasps]

Wasps team to play Ulster Rugby

Wasps’ Director of Rugby Dai Young has named his side to travel to Belfast to take on Ulster Rugby at the Kingspan Stadium on Friday night, in the opening round of this season’s European Rugby Champions Cup.

Wasps are boosted by the return of captain Joe Launchbury, Nathan Hughes and Jimmy Gopperth, whilst there’s also a return to the starting line-up for Christian Wade and Dan Robson in Wasps’ backline and Jake Cooper-Woolley and Tom Cruse in the front row.

Ahead of the European Rugby Champions Cup opening fixture, Dai Young said:

“The Kingspan Stadium is a great venue to play rugby, as I always found during my time coaching Cardiff, and our squad really enjoyed the atmosphere there in our pre-season game. It's a fantastic stadium, always ram-packed and the supporters really get behind the team.

"Ulster have a quality squad, with threats throughout, so you have to be at your best if you are to get a result there. I’m sure they will have ordered some rain in again as well - I don’t think I’ve ever been there on a Friday night when it hasn’t been bucketing down!

“We’ve parked the Premiership to one side for now and we’re really looking forward to getting stuck into a new tournament. We’ve dusted ourselves down and it’s a good time for us to switch to a new competition with the slate wiped clean.

“We go to Belfast with a smile on our faces, ready to enjoy the experience as that’s when we play our best rugby. If we can produce the standard of rugby we know we’re capable of, there’s no reason why we can’t get a result.

“All players want to play the best teams, in the best competitions, in the best grounds, and that’s what it will be on Friday night, so it should be a fantastic contest for fans to watch.”

European Rugby returns to the Ricoh Arena on Sunday 22 October when Harlequins are the visitors in round two of the Champions Cup, kick off 5.30pm.

Tickets are available from wasps.co.uk/tickets

Wasps team to play Ulster Rugby

15. Willie Le Roux
14. Christian Wade
13. Elliot Daly
12. Brendan Macken
11. Josh Bassett
10. Jimmy Gopperth
9. Dan Robson
1. Matt Mullan
2. Tom Cruse
3. Jake Cooper-Woolley
4. Joe Launchbury ©
5. Will Rowlands
6. James Haskell
7. Thomas Young
8. Nathan Hughes

16. Ashley Johnson
17. Simon McIntyre
18. Marty Moore
19. James Gaskell
20. Jack Willis
21. Joe Simpson
22. Rob Miller
23. Marcus Watson

[wasps]

This close to matchday, DW will probably go down, so thought I'd get a teams up post started over here.


I can see the arguments for Miller over WlR.
However as Miller is covering fly half, it does make sense to have him on the bench.

Haskell is a tricky one.
He may not be fully fit, and he may not be much of a link man or an attacking force.
However, I still feel that he's very useful in defence, and he's very strong when defending mauls.
Given how poor our defence has been, anyone putting their hand up in defence is good for me.

[Brandnewtorugby]

To face;
Ulster Rugby team to play Wasps, European Rugby Champions Cup (Friday 13th October, Kingspan Stadium, 7.45pm):
(1-8): K McCall, R Herring, W Herbst, K Treadwell, I Henderson (captain), R Diack, S Reidy, J Deysel;
(9-15): J Cooney, C Lealiifano, J Stockdale, S McCloskey, L Marshall, L Ludik, C Piutau;
Replacements (16-23): J Andrew, C Black, R Ah You, M Rea, C Ross, P Marshall, P Nelson, T Bowe.

Unavailable for selection:
Rory Best (hamstring)
Marcell Coetzee (knee)
Craig Gilroy (back)
Chris Henry (larynx)
Rob Lyttle (shoulder)
Al O'Connor (concussion)
Jared Payne (headaches)
Dave Shanahan (hamstring)
Nick Timoney (ankle)
Schalk van der Merwe (shoulder)

[Brandnewtorugby]

I would like to have seen Miller as well, but not surprised to see Gopperth there, he is Dai's number 2 fly half. Just hope they can create more than the last few games. Great that Robson is starting, wonder if that will be the key.

[wasps]

more to the point, Cipriani is out for a few more months yet, and we need to find a solution that will work for those games as well.

Miller as a part time fly half is likely to be inconsistent and not be as instinctive as a natural fly half.
Jimmy has been criticised for standing too deep in recent games, however, we know him to be a top quality fly half.
We just need the forwards to maintain parity at least, the team as a whole to retain possession, and for our attack to be based on Gopperth at 10, not Cipriani.
I feel that we're still trying to play a Cipriani style game plan without him being there, and quite frankly, there's very few 10's out there that have the same type of skillset as Danny.