By Sparkie
April 18 2003

London Wasps make the trip west to take on Bristol. The hosts are just one of five candidates navigating in ever decreasing circles, all within just one point of each other in the relegation mire. This could be their last ever game at the Memorial Stadium so it should be a cracker. Coach Peter Thorburn must pick up his charges from a bruising 43-13 reverse at Franklin's Gardens in midweek. Although his team turned round with a 13-7 advantage, Northampton blew them away with five tries in the second half. Off the field the team has Malcolm Pearce's threat to take the business to Oxford hanging over them like the sword of Damocles. The owner is keen to recoup some of his losses and has requested that 5,000 Bristol supporters buy season tickets for next term by May or face the reality of no rugby in Bristol.

Firoz Kassam is equally keen to welcome the team to Oxford -- providing that it avoids relegation. Thorburn faces the difficult job of trying to psyche up his players for the visit of Wasps with both hands tied behind his back. He has no budget for next season and is powerless to prevent his out-of-contract players from leaving.

Bristol do have the luxury of a game or two in hand over their relegation rivals and Thorburn has set his team the task of winning two of their last four games to guarantee Premiership rugby, wherever it happens to be. They are unlikely to find any sympathy among the Wasps players, however. We are intent on securing a Heineken Cup place next season.

Bristol ended last season on a relative high with an unexpected trip to HQ after they beat Champions Leicester at Welford Road in the play-off quarter final and won the semi too. Tigers were well beaten, even though they had one eye on defending the Heineken Cup. In so doing Bristol became the first team to win in Leicester for five seasons.

Our ex-director of rugby, Nigel Melville, masterminded a Play-off Grand Final victory for Premiership runners-up Gloucester, however. Then he heaped irony on top of the Cheery and White's celebrations by tempting another of our old-boys, Dean Ryan, from the Memorial Ground to Castle Grim to take charge of Glawses' forwards.

Whatever momentum Bristol had built up towards the close of last season was effectively stifled. This season opened with four straight defeats including a controversial last minute loss at our new home. Although Tigers were brought to heel again, Bristol had to wait until late November and December to hit a purple patch with four wins and a draw.

However, since the turn of the year they have won only once in six attempts, a 48-41 beano at home to Quins. The lack of continuity brought about by the Six Nations is one factor but the uncertainty over their future is the big millstone that they still have to shift. The one player that may be able to do that is Argentina's mercurial stand-off, Felipe Contempomi. Wasps will regard him well -- he has scored two or three interception tries against us in recent seasons and he may return to start on Sunday after recovering from an ankle operation.

Agustin Pichot will look forward to pairing up with his international half-back partner again. They both selflessly flew around the globe to turn out for Bristol after internationals this season as they strove to lift the team's fortunes.

Bristol's forwards remain as pugnacious as ever and the backs have been free scoring at times during the season. If anything has let them down it is their defence. Ours is not brilliant either but it has improved of late, so we might expect another match of excess. We must aim for a bonus point as well as a win to keep the chasing pack behind us. Sale and Glaws shared 60 points today with Sale scoring four tries. That might be viewed as two points dropped by the team above us as we close in for second spot! Time will tell.

As for Bristol, their plight merely serves to underline the difficulties of this fledgling professional sport. All our belts are going to be tightened next season as the RFU cuts its funding to each club by over a million pounds. With all this talk about relegation being the end of whichever club finished bottom, the Mem. outfit serve to remind us that they came back from such a fate in 1999, even if the route looked somewhat irregular at the time. While our Anglo-Scottish neighbours from Richmond are unlikely to show any sentimentality towards Bris at the end of what has become another dog-eat-dog season, we at Wasps wish them well.

Travellers to Bristol by train should leave early and make their way via Ealing Broadway as Paddington Station is closed. See messageboard for further info.

London Wasps: 15 Mark Van Gisbergen; 14 Josh Lewsey, 13 Ayoola Erinle, 12 Stuart Abbott, 11 John Rudd; 10 Alex King, 9 Rob Howley; 1 Craig Dowd, 2 Trevor Leota, 3 Will Green, 4 Simon Shaw, 5 Richard Birkett, 6 Joe Worsley, 7 Paul Volley, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio (Capt.)

Bench: 16 Martyn Wood, 17 Phil Greening, 18 Kenny Logan, 19 Mark Denney, 20 Mark Lock, 21 Peter Scrivener, 22 Alistair McKenzie

Bris: TBA

Previously v. Bristol: Pl 23 W 19 D 1 L 3

 
  8 Sep 2002   38 - 35   Adams Park   
 10 Feb 2002   34 - 16   Loftus Road   
 21 Oct 2001   22 - 43   Memorial Stadium   
 11 Mar 2001   24 - 12   Memorial Stadium   
 03 Sep 2000   23 - 17   Loftus Road   
 19 Apr 2000   25 - 31   Loftus Road   
  1 Oct 1999   13 - 20   Memorial Stadium   
  1 Feb 1998   32 - 18   Loftus Road   
 30 Aug 1997   38 - 21   Memorial Stadium   
 11 Jan 1997   41 - 18   Memorial Stadium   
  7 Dec 1996   15 - 13   Loftus Road
 11 Nov 1995   17 -  9   Memorial Stadium
  9 Sep 1995   33 -  5   Repton Avenue
 15 Apr 1995   27 - 15   Repton Avenue
 22 Oct 1994   25 - 24   Memorial Stadium
 19 Apr 1994   16 - 15   Memorial Stadium
 20 Nov 1993   34 -  8   Repton Avenue