Dai’s boys must win to keep Euro dream alive
WASPS will be aiming to keep their hopes of qualifying for the Champions Cup knockout stages alive when they travel to The Stoop to face Harlequins tonight.
Dai Young’s men must beat Quins to create a showdown with Ulster next week, who themselves host La Rochelle.
The black-andgolds have won just three of their last ten visits to The Stoop but ran out 41-10 victors in October’s reverse fixture.
Although Young will welcome back Kyle Eastmond, Joe Launchbury and Simon McIntyre, he will be without Gaby Lovobalavu and Juan de Jongh, who were both injured against Saracens last week.
Quins are adrift at the bottom of Pool One and are out of contention for the knock-out stages having collected just two points in Pool One.
French official Romain Poite has handed out four yellows in his three Champions Cup games this term, with three of those shown to home teams.
Wasps are heavy 1/3 favourites to keep their Champions Cup hopes alive, while Harlequins are 12/5 to claim their first Champions Cup win. The draw is available at 20/1. Wasps 41 Harlequins 10 (European Champions Cup) Wasps 21 Harlequins 24 (Premiership) Harlequins 32 Wasps
Ward, 32, is a versatile forward, and can play at hooker or flanker. He played the full 80 minutes at the Ricoh in October when Quins had the edge at the set-piece. He has made 100 appearance for Quins and scored 45 points, including a try against Northampton Saints earlier in the season where he skipped past Harry Mallinder on his way to touching down.
Dai Young’s squad has been hit by injury in recent weeks and it is a testament to the depth at the club that Guy Armitage so effortlessly stepped into the gap left by the injured Gaby Lovovbalavu against Sarries.
However, the black-and-golds paid for not scoring enough points when Saracens were down to 13 men and will need to be far more clinical at The Stoop. The most-improved area of Wasps’ game this season has been in the set-piece, although Quins came out on top in October’s match up when Wasps lost two scrums and four lineouts to an international-studded Quins’ forward pack, who have a 100 per cent scrum success rate in the competition.
I think they’d quite enjoy putting a dent in our ambitions, so we’re not expecting any favours
“I think they’d quite enjoy putting a dent in our ambitions, so we’re not expecting any favours. It’s going to be a tough game. They’ve got individual strengths right across the board. They’re a very momentum based team.”
“While we still have a number of players missing, we have finally managed some continuity of availability, over the last few games, and I am keen to build on that. There are always areas of our game which need working on, and the next two matches will give us that opportunity against top class opposition.”