London Welsh head coach Lyn Jones has made three changes for Saturdays local derby versus London Wasps at the Kassam Stadium.
The Exiles picked up a losing bonus point from a 13-6 defeat at the hands of Worcester Warriors last week in a turgid affair at Sixways. Welsh are hoping to use a large expected home crowd to inspire a victory over a Wasps side who have not won on the road in the Premiership since October 2011.
Seb Jewell moves up from the bench to replace James Lewis in the outside centre berth, along with James Tideswell, and Alfie To'oala moving off the bench into the starting Pack.
Jones has kept the squad largely unchanged between back to back Premiership clashes over the festive period as the exiles look to further cement their position in the Aviva Premiership table over the new year.
Meanwhile, Wasps make four changes to the team that beat Sale Sharks at Adams Park last weekend, with two in the backline and two in the pack.
Tom Varndell comes into the starting line-up, replacing Christian Wade, who misses out after picking up a knock last weekend, while the other change is at fly half, with Nick Robinson starts in the 10 shirt, and Stephen Jones shifting to the bench.
There are also two changes amongst the forwards, with James Cannon earning a start in the second row, and Jonathan Poff given the nod at 7, in the place of James Haskell, who also picked up a knock last Sunday.
There is also one change on the bench, with Sam Jones coming into the squad to replace Jonathan Poff, who is promoted to the starting line-up.
Form: Wasps 25-18 victory over bottom-side Sale Sharks last weekend means they have lost only one of their last six games. But Wasps are still yet to win on their travels in the Aviva Premiership this season, with their winless away run now stretching back over 12 months. Wasps ran out 29-19 winners when the two teams met earlier in the season at Adams Park with Nicky Robinson's late penalty denying the Exiles a losing bonus point.
The teams:
London Welsh: 15 Tom Arscott, 14 Dan Caprice, 13 Seb Jewell, 12 Sonny Parker, 11 Nick Scott, 10 Gordon Ross, 9 Rob Lewis, 8 Alfie To'oala, 7 Mike Denbee, 6 Ed Jackson, 5 Kirill Kulemin, 4 Jonathan Mills (c), 3 James Tideswell, 2 Neil Briggs, 1 Frank Montanella.
Replacements: 16 Greg Evans, 17 Tom Bristow, 18 Greg Bateman, 19 Matt Corker, 20 Adam Balding, 21 Nick Runciman, 22 Alex Davies, 23. J Lewis.
London Wasps: 15 Hugo Southwell (c), 14 Elliot Daly, 13 Andrea Masi, 12 Chris Bell, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Nick Robinson, 9 Joe Simpson, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Jonathan Poff, 6 Ashley Johnson, 5 James Cannon, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Phil Swainston, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 Zak Taulafo.
Replacements: 16 Tom Lindsay, 17 Tim Payne, 18 Will Taylor, 19 Marco Wentzel, 20 Sam Jones, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Stephen Jones, 23 Chris Mayor.
Date: Saturday , December 29
Venue: Kassam Stadium
Kick-off: 15:00 GMT
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Assistant referees: Paul Dix, Gareth Copsey
Comments
LondonWasp says...
we were awful against sale, so improvement is needed against welsh
Posted 13:10 28th December 2012