ALLEZ LES NOIRS!

By Vespasian
December 14 2013

London Wasps need another five pointer against Grenoble to keep pace with Bayonne in Pool 4 of the Amlin Challenge Cup.

Bayonne grabbed a vital bonus point in the first half at Viadana, turning round 12-40 up after an explosive start from the Italian team had them 12-7 up. Bayonne completed a 19-80 rout so the pool is certain to come to a climax on the second weekend of January when it is likely Wasps will visit Bayonne with a four point cushion in the table. Will Bayonne regret not scoring more (63-7) against Viadana at home?

First comes Sunday's visit of Grenoble, still smarting from last Saturday's 7-47 reverse. The French team found Wasps "perfectly" annoying. They will be out to improve on their first half showing when they appeared to run out of puff.

Wasps, for their part, must look to run in 50 points to keep up the pressure on Bayonne. Expect a similar game plan to last weekend's, with plenty of forward grunt to test Grenoble's resolve. And welcome back Tom Varndell. Go looking for work and grab a hat-trick...it's 5 points or bust!

London Wasps: 15 Elliot Daly; 14 Will Helu, 13 Ben Jacobs, 12 Charlie Hayter, 11 Tom Varndell; 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Jack Moates; 1 Matt Mullan, 2 Tom Lindsay, 3 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 4 James Cannon, 5 Tom Palmer, 6 James Haskell (Capt.), 7 Sam Jones, 8 Ed Jackson.

Bench: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Taione Vea, 18 Will Taylor, 19 Esteban Lozada, 20 Rory Pitman, 21 Josh Bassett, 22 Tommy Bell, 23 Andrew Suniula

Grenoble squad: (likely to pick the same team as last week) Grégory Fabro, Dayna Edwards, Romain David, Richard Choirat, Anthony Hegarty, Vincent Campo, Hendrik Roodt, Alten Hulme, Thibaud Rey, Roland Bernard, Cédric Béal, Henry Vanderglas, Florian Faure, Mathieu Lorée, Nicolas Bézy, Olly Barkley, Danie Kilioni, Rida Jaouher, Geoffroy Messina, Shane O’Leary, Florian Ninard, Matthieu Nicolas, Alipate Ratini,