By Peter Snow's Swingometer
May 23 2004

London Wasps go into the Heineken Cup final against the holders Stade Toulousain as slight favourites in most pundits books. Home turf at Twickenham seems to be the key. However, Toulouse have long since purged themselves of their away-day blues... There are few certainties in life beyond taxes and death but London Wasps and Stade Toulousain can guarantee a cracker today.

Wasps are unbeaten in Europe for two seasons, save for a home turn-over by Celtic Warriors. Such are the vagaries of Welsh rugby that that team faces oblivion at the hands of its governing body despite the magnitude of their win against us. If they had been in an easier group, Warriors may well have been making headlines this day. They desrve a real shot at making it in Wales' new regime. As Wasps has shown, money isn't everything, a cutting edge is.

Toulouse, too, are unbeaten for two seasons save for an away loss: last year to London Irish and this season to a surprise defeat by Edinburgh. Both clubs have had a hiccup or two in recent weeks. Will it be London Wasps who reach the zenith of European rugby or will Toulouse defend their trophy in our backyard.

Today will depend as much on the unsung players who did not get their names into the acres of news print devoted to this match (despite the presence of an uneventful FA Cup final yesterday). The old swingometer reckons the game will be more akin to the semi-final in Bordeaux than the cliff-hanger of Dublin. It must be Wasps, Wasps, Wasps ... by five!

What does it mean to lose? A picture from Lansdowne Road paints a thousand words:

London Wasps: 15 Mark van Gisbergen; 14 Josh Lewsey, 13 Fraser Waters, 12 Stuart Abbott, 11 Tom Voyce; 10 Alex King, 9 Rob Howley; 1 Tim Payne, 2 Trevor Leota, 3 Will Green, 4 Simon Shaw, 5 Richard Birkett, 6 Joe Worsley, 7 Paul Volley, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio (Capt.)

Bench: 16 Mark Denney, 17 Ayoola Erinle, 18 Peter Richards, 19 Henry Nwume, 20 Mark Lock, 21 Ben Gotting, 22 Martin Purdy

Stade Toulousain: 15 Clément Poitrenaud; 14 Emile Ntamack, 13 Yannick Jauzion, 12 Cédric Desbrosse, 11 Cédric Heymans; 10 Yann Delaigue, 9 Frédéric Michalak; 1 Patrice Collazo, 2 William Servat, 3 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 4 Fabien Pelous (Capt.), 5 Trevor Brennan, 6 Isitolo Maka, 7 Jean Bouilhou, 8 Christian Labit

Remplacements: 16 Vincent Clerc, 17 Jean-Baptiste Ellisalde, 18 Julian Fiorini, 19 Yannick Bru, 20 Romain Millochlusky, 21 Finau Maka, 22 David Gérard