By Caustic Sid
November 14 2003

London Wasps enter the Powergen Cup with an away trip to our old friends Bristol at the Memorial Ground. Wasps have proceeded to lose all our subsequent cup ties since we won the cup twice in a row in 1999 and 2000. It was Bristol, in fact, who beat us as we tried for the hat-trick. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. Wasps have moved homes and Bristol were almost made homeless after Malcolm Pearce threatened to pull the rug away from them last season. To be fair to MP he did give leave to a supporters' trust to take over the reins once relegation was confirmed on that dark final day of the season.

However, the hindrance of Pearce's seismic threat to sell/merge/move/shift the club definitely weighed heavily on Bristol's players before they took the plunge to National 1. Six months on and Bristol are trying to revive themselves. Wasps' visit to the Mem will be a welcome respite from the trials and tribulations of forging together a completely new first team which comprises the wily, ex-international prop, David Hilton and most of their top quality academy -- some of whom played Wasps u21s in the play-off final of 2002 at Twickenham. They're not such strangers after all.

Bris are taking the long view on the road to recovery. And if they need any pointers, which I don't think they do, they should do no better than to look at our erstwhile colt and their erstwhile fullback (now ultra-Wasp of today), Josh Lewsey, as he takes on the French on Sunday morning in the RWC. Waspies may well remember his mazy runs for Bristol against us when he was studying down there. Bris may well have an ace or two more up their sleeves this weekend.

So we'll not take them for granted. Last time out Bris succumbed to a 23-10 defeat at London Welsh whose side that contained an on-loan Harvey Biljon. Our scrum-half will have told Warren Gatland that Bris battled hard and lost due to a high penalty count, conceding only one try. Indeed at one stage Bris trailed by only one point after their wing, James Bailey hacked on a loose ball and scored.

Wasps take a strong backline and a young, mobile pack to take on Bristol's youngsters. On the bench, Will Green and Peter Scrivener make a welcome return from injury and Rob Howley and Fraser Waters add some experience alongside their ex-academy colleagues. All-in-all it looks like a typically rumbustious cup-tie is on the cards -- perhaps as thrilling as our winning 44-31 semi-final encounter with them at the Madejski Stadium in April 2000?

London Wasps: 15 Tom Voyce; 14 Shane Roiser, 13 Ayoola Erinle, 12 Mark Denney (Capt.), 11 John Rudd; 10 Mark Van Gisbergen, 9 Peter Richards; 1 Alistair McKenzie, 2 Trevor Leota, 3 Tim Payne, 4 Martin Purdy, 5 George Skivington, 6 James Haskell, 7 Jonny O’ Connor, 8 Ian Clarke

Bench: 16 Rob Howley, 17 Fraser Waters, 18 Tom Rees, 19 Ben Gotting, 20 Peter Scrivener, 21 John Hart, 22 Will Green

Bristol: 15 S Marsden; 14 J Bailey, 13 R Higgitt, 12 J Hawker, 11 M Griffiths; 10 D Gray, 9 P Hodgson; 1 D Hilton, 2 N Clarke, 3 J Hobson, 4 O Kohn, 5 O Hodge, 6 M Styles, 7 C Morgan, 8 R Martin-Redman.

Bench: 16 A Billig, 17 M Hook, 18 G Nicholls, 19 A Clarke, 20 S Nelson, 21 R Hunt, 22 B Gerry.

Travel Message:

There is a supporters coach leaving Vale Farm at 12 o'clock this Sunday. If you are interested please call John Gadsdon asap on 020 8578 2300 (W) or 020 8571 7063 (H).

We can pick up at High Wycombe if required. Price is £17.00.

Prop Idol in the Bris clubhouse bar from 6.30-10pm