News

Preview: Wasps v Bath

September 30 2008

Bath coach Steve Meehan has made two changes to the team that hammered Worcester on Saturday, for the trip to Wycombe for traditionally one of the Guinness Premiership's hardest-fought matches against Wasps.

Prop David Barnes and hooker Pieter Dixon come into the front row to replace David Flatman and Lee Mears respectively.

Meanwhile, six weeks ahead of schedule, fly-half Danny Cipriani will return for Wasps as they face Bath in a rare midweek fixture at Adams Park tomorrow. Named in the starting line-up, Cipriani coincidentally makes his return against the same opponents he faced when sustaining the fracture dislocation to his ankle back in May.

After returning to full contact training last week the Wasps youngster is named alongside a largely unchanged back division following Wasps' win at Welford Road. Cipriani replaces Jeremy Staunton, who is named in the replacements, and scrum-half Eoin Reddan moves back into the starting line-up, switching with Mark Robinson who takes a place on the bench.

In the front row Tim Payne and captain Raphael Ibanez make a return from injury and Simon Shaw is also called back into the starting line-up partnering Tom Palmer in the second row. The Worsley-Rees-Hart back-row combination stays intact and James Haskell is recalled to the bench.

"On the back of a great display at Leicester, especially in the second half, we saw a lot of discipline in our performance it is important that we now maintain this and continue to improve," said a relieved Wasps coach Ian McGeechan.

"Bath, currently the in-form team in the Premiership, are playing some very constructive rugby. They are a well-coached and strong rugby side who command a great deal of respect and we know we must lift our game another level now to produce a winning performance."

"Danny (Cipriani) has made a fantastic recovery six weeks ahead of schedule. His attitude has been superb and the work of the support staff at the club in ensuring this has been very impressive. We are delighted to see him back out on the pitch and hope that he is able to enjoy his return to action in front of a home crowd."

Form: London Wasps finally got their season rolling with a 28-19 victory at Welford Road on Friday evening. Wasps have lost their last two regular season games at Adams Park, the last time the Londoners lost three in a row at home in the Premiership was when they played at Loftus Road in 2001. Bath Rugby have won three of their first four games in the Guinness Premiership including successive away victories at Bristol and London Irish. Bath have not won three in a row on the road in the competition since March 2004. The two sides contested one of the Guinness Premiership semi-final matches last year with Wasps winning all three encounters between the two last season. Bath's most recent win at Adams Park was 12-9 on 29 January 2005.

The teams:

London Wasps: 15 Tom Voyce, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Riki Flutey, 12 Dominic Waldouck, 11 Josh Lewsey, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 John Hart, 7 Tom Rees, 6 Joe Worsley, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Phil Vickery, 2 Raphael Ibanez (c), 1 Tim Payne.

Replacements: 16 Rob Webber, 17 Tom French, 18 Richard Birkett, 19 James Haskell, 20 Rob Hoadley, 21 Mark Robinson, 22 Jeremy Staunton.

Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Joe Maddock, 13 Alex Crockett, 12 Shaun Berne, 11 Jack Cuthbert, 10 Butch James, 9 Michael Claassens, 8 Jonny Faamatuainu, 7 Michael Lipman (c), 6 Stuart Hooper, 5 Peter Short, 4 Justin Harrison, 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Pieter Dixon, 1 David Barnes.

Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 Duncan Bell, 18 Josh Ovens, 19 James Scaysbrook, 20 Scott Bemand, 21 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 22 Andrew Higgins.

Date: Wednesday October 1

Venue: Adams Park

Kick-off: 19.45 (18.45 GMT)

Referee: Sean Davey