Preview: London Wasps v Grenoble

Editor

Dai Young is expecting a reaction from the visitors this weekend as London Wasps face Grenoble at Adams Park.

Dai Young is expecting a reaction from the visitors this weekend as London Wasps face Grenoble at Adams Park.

In the backline there is a notable return to fitness, with Tom Varndell making a welcome return to the black and gold after three months on the sidelines.

Ben Jacobs starts at outside centre in the place of Chris Bell, who is left out of the matchday 23 having carried a number of bumps and bruises over the last few weeks.

The other change to the backline sees Jack Moates start at scrum-half in the place of Joe Simpson, who is ruled out through injury.

In the pack Tom Lindsay is given the starting spot at hooker, moving Carlo Festuccia to the bench. James Cannon gets a start in the second row in the place of Joe Launchbury, who is given some much-needed rest after a busy recent schedule.

The final change sees Ed Jackson comes into the back-row at number eight, moving Sam Jones to the openside flank.

After a strong win in France against the same opposition last weekend, Young made it clear that he is expecting a dangerous reaction from Grenoble this Sunday.

“There is a reason that Grenoble are in the position they are in their domestic league and for a large part of last weekend's game they made us work really hard to break them down,” said Young.

“After that result I have no doubt that they will come to Adams Park with a point to prove and we have got to be clinical in everything we do this Sunday.

“We have often been guilty this season of not backing up wins with a performance the following weekend but we must do that if we have aspirations of pushing on as a Club. This weekend is one of those occasions.”

Grenoble on the other hand have made five changes to their backline, with former England international Olly Barkley starting at fly-half.

Florian Faure comes in and captains the side from number eight.

The teams:

London Wasps: 15 Elliott Daly, 14 William Helu, 13 Ben Jacobs, 12 Charlie Hayter, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Jack Winter-Moates, 8 Ed Jackson, 7 Sam Jones, 6 James Haskell (c), 5 Tom Palmer, 4 James Cannon, 3 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 2 Tom Lindsay, 1 Matt Mullan.
Replacements: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Taione Vea, 18 William Taylor, 19 Esteban Lozada, 20 Rory Pitman, 21 Thomas Bell, 22 Andrew Suniula, 23 Josh Bassett,

Grenoble: 15 Matthieu Nicolas, 14 Ratu Alipate Ratini 13 Shane O'Leary, 12 Geoffroy Messina, 11 Florian Ninard, 10 Olly Barkley, 9 Nicolas Bézy, 8 Florian Faure (c), 7 Henri Vanderglas, 6 Cedric Beal, 5 Hendrik Roodt, 4 Alten Hulme, 3 Richard Choirat, 2 Anthony Hegarty, 1 Gregory Fabro.
Replacements: 16 Vincent Campo, 17 Romain David, 18 Dayna Edwards, 19 Thibault Rey, 20 Mathieu Loree, 21 Daniel Kilioni, 22 Rida Jaouher, 23 Roland Bernard.

Date: Sunday 15th December
Venue: Adams Park
Kick-off: 15:00 (local and GMT)
Referee: Andrew McMenemy (Scotland)
Assistant Referees: Peter Allan (Scotland), Adrian Graves (Scotland)