Preview: Bath v London Wasps
Fresh from starring for the England Saxons last weekend, Alex Crockett is named as captain for Bath's Guinness Premiership clash against London Wasps at the Rec on Saturday.
Fresh from starring for the England Saxons last weekend, Alex Crockett is named as captain for Bath's Guinness Premiership clash against London Wasps at the Rec on Saturday.
Lee Mears, Michael Lipman and Matt Stevens return from international duty to start the match, however Steve Borthwick is missing from the line-up with an injury.
Having captained England when they faced Italy last weekend, Borthwick sustained a knee injury. Fitness testing has prevented the lock from making an appearance for Bath this weekend.
This means Peter Short will start in the second row with Danny Grewcock.
The half-back pairing sees Michael Claassens at scrum-half and Shaun Berne at fly-half with Olly Barkley starting at inside centre.
Prop David Barnes will reach a milestone this weekend when he clocks his 200th appearance for Bath.
Meanwhile, all of Wasps' internationals who featured in last weekend's round of Six Nations games will feature in the 22 named for Saturday's match.
Though Paul Sackey faces a fitness test on this thumb, and Tom Rees is sidelined for the next two months with knee ligament damage, Phil Vickery is back to full fitness to pair up with Tim Payne, who impressed in Rome last weekend, and Joe Worsley lines up in the back row after being ruled out of the opening games in the Six Nations with a neck problem.
Danny Cipriani will start at fly-half, his first club appearance since making his England debut a fortnight ago, whilst Simon Shaw and James Haskell are also named in the pack alongside England Saxons' Tom Palmer.
Lawrence Dallaglio is ruled out with a rib injury, his place at number eight and the captaincy being taken by John Hart.
Mark McMillan wins his seventh Guinness Premiership start of the season at scrum-half as Eoin Reddan sits on the bench whilst Josh Lewsey will look to extend his impressive run of form from full-back.
Rob Hoadley will travel as cover in the event of Sackey not starting.
Form: Bath Rugby are unbeaten in their last 13 matches at the Rec in the Guinness Premiership, their last reversal there in the competition being 12-19 at the hands of Bristol on 18 November 2006. London Wasps have suffered back to back defeats to Munster in the European Cup and Gloucester in the Guinness Premiership. Wasps have won just one of their last eleven away games in all competitions since last March: 33-17 at Llanelli Scarlets in the European Cup on 17 November. The last five encounters between the two clubs have gone the way of the home side on the day, whilst Wasps' last win at the Rec was 19-16 on 16 October 2004.
Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Joe Maddock, 13 Alex Crockett, 12 Olly Barkley, 11 Andrew Higgins, 10 Shaun Berne, 9 Michael Claassens, 8 Zak Feaunati, 7 Michael Lipman, 6 Andy Beattie, 5 Danny Grewcock, 4 Peter Short, 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Lee Mears, 1 David Barnes
Replacements: 16 Pieter Dixon, 17 Aaron Jarvis, 18 Daniel Browne, 19 Jonny Faamatuainu, 20 Mike Baxter, 21 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 22 Matt Banahan
London Wasps: 15 Josh Lewsey, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Fraser Waters, 12 Dominic Waldouck, 11 David Doherty, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Mark McMillan, 8 John Hart (c), 7 Joe Worsley, 6 James Haskell, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Phil Vickery, 2 Joe Ward, 1 Tim Payne.
Replacements: 16 James Buckland, 17 Nick Adams, 18 Dan Leo, 19 Rob Webber, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Dave Walder, 22 Mark Van Gisbergen.
Date: Saturday, February 16
Venue: Recreation Ground
Kick-off: 14:45 GMT
Referee: Rob Debney
Touch judges: Peter Huckle, Bob/ Mullis
Television match official: Laurie Bryant, Geoff Warren