ONCE OF GRIMS & WASPS

By Vespasian
April 1 2014

The Cherry & Whites visit London Wasps this Sunday for the Amlin Cup quarter final. Both teams' hopes in the Aviva Premiership lie in tatters but recent games tell vastly different stories.

Gloucester's plodding winter has sprung into life since the club was knocked out of the Heineken Cup at the pool stage, finishing a distant second to Munster. Grim times have shown signs of being turned around in last six matches with 3 wins, two narrow defeats and a only one thumping loss at Northampton (39-13). Our visitors are breathing down our necks in the league as the battle for the seventh sport hots up.

London Wasps form, meanwhile, has been all but lost, in a similar vein to last season's end of term plot. Just one win out of six signifies that the home side is off the pace when it really matters. Dig a little deeper, though, and four of the losses were tight. If the ides of March had been kinder, a top six finish might still have been a possiblity.

And so we turn to the Amlin Challenge Cup, the only route to silverware for either team this term. A fanciful notion, perhaps, but the winners of this tie are guaranteed a "home" semi-final against the winners of Bath and Brive. Hence another reason to rest Wasps' player of the season, Joe Launchbury, last weekend, Six Nations notwithstanding.

Plucking more positives from last week: Jonah Holmes try-scoring homecoming and the scoring of three tries against the top dogs, Saracens give pause for rethought. Let's ignore the periodical lapses in our defence, and the waywardly kicking performances of late.

Add in a bit of spice: Tom Palmer announces his impending move to Gloucester but must face them twice before the season is out! Wasps settle on Andrea Masi at fullback and Tom Daly at outside centre in their search for a cutting edge.

For Gloucester, Billy Twelvetrees has ousted the departing Freddie Burns at stand off, Mike Tindall trundles ever onwards, and Ben Morgan leads a fearsome back row.

The vital quarter, in this quarter final, will be the first. If Wasps start well, Gloucester can be subdued. Give them a sniff, and they'll extinguish home advantage before the death.

April heralds the beginning of the sharp end of the season. It used to be a magical time for Wasps but it is six years since the team has performed. It'll be tight: Wasps by three, and a late-April Bathtime...

TV (and football) rules the roost. So, why not make it difficult for home and away fans alike by kicking off at the at an unfeasibly late hour of 19:00 hours, just as the Bucks shadows of lengthen towards dusk?

Teams:

London Wasps: 15 Andrea Masi; 14 Will Helu, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Chris Bell (Capt.), 11 James Short; 10 Andy Goode, 9 Joe Simpson; 1 Matt Mullan, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 3 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 4 Joe Launchbury, 5 Kearnan Myall, 6 Sam Jones, 7 James Haskell, 8 Nathan Hughes

Bench: 16 Tom Lindsay, 17 Simon McIntyre, 18 Phil Swainston, 19 Tom Palmer, 20 Guy Thompson, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Joe Carlisle, 23 Charlie Hayter.

Gloucester Rugby: 15 Rob Cook; 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Henry Trinder, 12 Mike Tindall, 11 Jonny May; 10 Billy Twelvetrees (Capt.), 9 Jimmy Cowan; 1 Nick Wood, 2 Dan George, 3 Shaun Knight; 4 Elliott Stooke, 5 James Hudson; 6 Sione Kalamafoni, 7 Matt Kvesic, 8 Ben Morgan

Bench: 16 Huia Edmonds, 17 Yann Thomas, 18 Sila Puafisi, 19 Will James, 20 Gareth Evans, 21 Tavis Knoyle, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Martyn Thomas.