Teams Up for Tiggs - Mills and TY on the Bench

[Rossm]

Lee Blackett has named his side to host Leicester Tigers at the Coventry Building Society Arena in Gallagher Premiership Round 13 on Sunday.

There are four personnel changes and three positional switches from the team that played Sale Sharks on New Year’s Day.

Tom Cruse, Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, Tom Willis and Charlie Atkinson all come into the starting team, having featured off the bench last Saturday.

Jimmy Gopperth switches to inside centre, as Atkinson comes in at fly-half. Sam Wolstenholme is Atkinson’s half-back partner, while Sam Spink joins Gopperth in the centres.

The rest of the back-line is unchanged. Try-scorer last week, Josh Bassett is joined by Francois Hougaard and Ali Crossdale, in the back three.

Cruse and Toomaga-Allen are joined in the front row by Tom West.

Tom Willis comes in at number eight. The side is captained by Brad Shields at openside flanker. Alfie Barbeary completes the back row at blindside flanker.

Elliott Stooke and Vaea Fifita start in the second row once more to complete the line-up.

On the bench, Ryan Mills returns from injury to make his first appearance since September 2020.

Thomas Young is in line to make his 150th Wasps appearance from amongst the substitutes.

They are joined by Dan Frost, Bomber Hislop, Biyi Alo, Tim Cardall, Will Porter and Rob Miller as the other replacements.

Wasps team to face Leicester Tigers at the Coventry Building Society Arena on Sunday (kick-off 3:00pm)

Wasps (First-team appearances) 

15 Ali Crossdale (9)

14 Francois Hougaard (6)

13 Sam Spink (11)

12 Jimmy Gopperth (139)

11 Josh Bassett (161)

10 Charlie Atkinson (18)

9 Sam Wolstenholme (25)

1 Tom West (60)

2 Tom Cruse (105)

3 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen (56)

4 Vaea Fifita (10)

5 Elliott Stooke (11)

6 Alfie Barbeary (19)

7 Brad Shields (64) (c)

8 Tom Willis (50)

Replacements

16 Dan Frost (

17 Robin Hislop (11)

18 Biyi Alo (25)

19 Tim Cardall (40)

20 Thomas Young (149)

21 Will Porter (39)

22 Ryan Mills (6)

23 Rob Miller (127)

Unavailable (16): Malakai Fekitoa, James Gaskell, Ben Harris, Zach Kibirige, Joe Launchbury, Elliot Millar-Mills, Matteo Minozzi, Ben Morris, Paolo Odogwu, Gabriel Oghre, Dan Robson, Will Simonds, Jacob Umaga, Theo Vukasinovic, Marcus Watson, Jack Willis.

[Peej]

Wow, team released pre- 12pm!

That looks fairly decent, to be honest, and as expected given injuries and absences. Slightly unfortunate that we are playing the league leaders, but it is what it is

[Rossm]

Tigers.

15 Freddie Steward [45]
14 Harry Potter [25]
13 Matt Scott [34]
12 Dan Kelly [31]
11 Guy Porter [30]
10 George Ford [117]
9 Jack van Poortvliet [32]
1 Ellis Genge (c) [99]
2 Julián Montoya [14]
3 Dan Cole [277]
4 Calum Green [73]
5 Eli Snyman [8]
6 Harry Wells [138]
7 Tommy Reffell [60]
8 Ollie Chessum [21]

REPLACEMENTS
16 Charlie Clare [37]
17 James Whitcombe [10]
18 Joe Heyes [85]
19 Kini Murimurivalu [30]
20 Nic Dolly [13]
21 Ben Youngs [273]
22 Freddie Burns [85]
23 Matías Moroni [23]

[Peej]

That pack and reserve forwards is pretty thin for Tigers. Well, non-existent in places given they have a centre/wing covering the back row. Makes it seem like we should have gone for that 6:2 split after all!

But that back line is good, and they will fight. Can't be complacent.

[Beasties]

JTA v Genge won’t be pretty, need to keep scrums to a minimum.

[Hymenoptera]

Disappointed to see Wolstenholme at 9 again. I'd have had Mehon with Hoog at 9

[HDAWG]

Exciting for Atkinson, he's gonna have a hell of an experience playing against a team like Tigers, with Ford as well.

Not confident about this, but glad players are returning. Shame it's when we're facing league leaders and not Bath!

[hookender]

Names look reasonable on paper, let’s just hope they come together as a team.

[Steve from Cov]

Some nervousness from Tigers fans on their message board.

Our second/back row selection looks stronger but their backs and front-row selection are extremely dangerous.

Looking forward to it though.

[DGP Wasp]

Love the look of that back row, especially with Young to add in there.  That starting 2nd row has been great all season.  Big game for Atkinson.  First start in a very long time and it just happens to be in a home derby against the league leaders.  We know he's good.  This will be some test of how good he is.  Great to see Mills back on the team sheet.  Hope he goes well.  With Atkinson, Mills, Umaga and Gopperth all available we suddenly have exciting options at 10/12 after an eternity of simply selecting the last man standing.

As good a 23 (on paper at least) as I've seen from Wasps in a long, long time.  I'm trying to be positive and convince myself that this team is good enough, but Tiggers will take some stopping.  COYW!!

[Vespula Vulgaris]

If they play like they can then we will put up a reasonable fight.  But I'm not holding out much hope.

[Raggs]

This will be a real aerial test I reckon. With Ford and Stewart, I don't see us getting much out of them, just hope that they don't get much out of us.

[Westy68]

I must admit I would play Hougaard at 9. Tigers aren’t anywhere near full strength but are a team full of confidence, which makes a big difference.

I think we will still lose but not as much as I thought originally

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Interesting stats on the head to head at FB

https://twitter.com/WaspsRugby/status/1479467866974040068?s=20

Crossdale (Steward)
Matches 9 (9)
Tries 3 (1)
Tackles 17 (17)
Clean breaks 5 (5)

[baldpaul101]

Interesting stats on the head to head at FB


Crossdale (Steward)
Matches 9 (9)
Tries 3 (1)
Tackles 17 (17)
Clean breaks 5 (5)

I wonder what the High Balls taken, Tackles missed, mistakes made stats would look like?
Not saying Crossdale would necessarily come off worse on those, just that Wasps Twitter feed has, understandably, chosen some stats that Ali is better or equal to Steward in.....