News

Preview: London Irish v London Wasps

September 05 2008

London Irish are hoping to take the momentum of a strong finish to last season and the hard work of a tough pre-season into Saturday's London Double Header match with London Wasps at Twickenham.

The 22-man squad announced by the Exiles contains ten full internationals, eight in the starting XV and two among the replacements. Among the capped players are Topsy Ojo and David Paice, who made their debuts for England on the tour to New Zealand in June.

Two players make their Guinness Premiership debuts for the club in Saturday's match, Academy and England U20 prop, Alex Corbisiero and new signing, Chris Hala'Ufia, the Tongan international.

However, Irish have to start without a number of players that picked up knocks in pre-season; they include Bob Casey (arm), Shane Geraghty (ankle) and James Hudson (ankle) and Declan Danaher who is ill.

"We've gone for a tough pre-season to ensure that we're as battle hardened as we can be, although we've paid the price for that in some areas," said London Irish Head Coach Toby Booth.

"Last weekend we played the champions of Europe in Cork, tomorrow we face the best in England and that's who you aspire to beat.

"Over the next five weeks we face five of the six teams that finished above us in the league last season. That's as tough a start as we've ever had so we'll need a little luck.

"This season's squad is the best we've had in my time at London Irish in terms of quality, however we'd like some more quality within the squad in order to increase our depth in some positions and we're addressing that," Booth continued.

Meanwhile, Wasps will start with England hopeful Riki Flutey at fly-half where he'll form a formidable half-back pairing with Irish international Eoin Reddan.

They will, however, be without new signing and legendary French flank Serge Betsen, but another Frenchman, captain Raphael Ibanez, leads the side in between props Pat Barnard and Tim Payne.

Director of Rugby, Ian McGeechan also hands the dynamic Josh Lewsey a place at inside centre, filling the void ultimately left by injured ten Danny Cipriani.

Elsewhere in the backs, wings Paul Sackey and Tom Voyce will be hunting scores while young Dom Waldouck seems to have cemented the number thirteen shirt from now-Treviso player Fraser Waters.

Form: The fifth season of London Double Headers sees London Irish take on London Wasps on the opening weekend of a Premiership season for the first time. London Irish finished last season as the form side in the Guinness Premiership, winning their last five encounters following their loss at Bath on 22 March. The Exiles have lost on their last two visits to Twickenham. London Wasps begin the defence of their Guinness Premiership title at the same ground where they won the crown 14 weeks ago. Wasps suffered only one reversal in their last 13 Premiership matches: 17-25 at home to Gloucester in May. Irish have beaten Wasps just once in their last five clashes in all competitions.

The Teams:

London Irish: 15 Peter Hewat, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Delon Armitage; 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10 Mike Catt (c), 9 Paul Hodgson, 8 Chris Hala'Ufia, 7 Steffon Armitage, 6 Richard Thorpe, 5 Nick Kennedy, 4 Gary Johnson, 3 Faan Rautenbach, 2 Danie Coetzee, 1 Alex Corbisiero

Replacements:16 Dan Murphy, 17 David Paice, 18 James Buckland, 19 Jon Fisher, 20 Adam Thompstone, 21 Peter Richards, 22 Eoghan Hickey.

London Wasps: 15 Mark Van Gisbergen, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Dominic Waldouck, 12 Josh Lewsey, 11 Tom Voyce, 10 Riki Flutey, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 James Haskell, 7 Tom Rees, 6 Joe Worsley, 5 Richard Birkett, 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Pat Barnard, 2 Raphael Ibanez (c),1 Tim Payne.

Replacements: 16 Rob Webber, 17 Phil Vickery, 18 Tom Palmer, 19 John Hart, 20 Joe Simpson, 21 Jeremy Staunton, 22 Lachlan Mitchell.

Date: Saturday, September 6

Venue: Twickenham

Kick-off: 14:30 (13:30 GMT)

Referee: Andrew Small

Touch judges: David Kurk, Andy Watson

Assessor: Tony Spreadbury

Television match official: Clive Leeke