Wasps v London Irish: Teams
England flanker Tom Rees will make his long-awaited return from injury for Wasps' Premiership clash with London Irish.
Last Updated: 08/03/09 1:06pm
England flanker Tom Rees will make his long-awaited return from injury for Wasps' Premiership clash with London Irish.
Rees, who suffered a moderate tear of the medial knee ligament at the start of the year, returned to full training this week and goes straight into the starting XV at Adams Park.
The inclusion of Rees is one of five changes made by Wasps, with a new-look front-row of Tim Payne, Rob Webber and Pat Barnard.
The other change sees Mark Robinson pip Eoin Reddan to the No.9 jersey.
"We are focused on making a strong return to Adams Park in front of our home crowd, whose support has been fantastic in recent games.," said head coach Shaun Edwards.
"Facing London Irish we know it will be a very competitive game against a very strong side. The defeat at Worcester hurt, but the performance was very strong and we will be looking to build on that on Sunday."
Meanwhile, London Irish have shown confidence in the 22-man squad that lost to Leicester last weekend by announcing an unchanged starting line-up for the game.
Paul Hodgson captains the team in the continued absence of the injured Bob Casey with youngster Tom Homer continuing at full-back.
"We face another tough test of our ambition to finish in the top four on Sunday afternoon," said head coach Toby Booth.
"As always at this point of the season Wasps are starting to play good rugby, especially at home. We will have to compete in every aspect of the game if we are to get a result."
Wasps: 15 Mark Van Gisbergen, 14 Lachlan Mitchell, 13 Dominic Waldouck, 12 Josh Lewsey, 11 Tom Voyce, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Mark Robinson, 8 John Hart, 7 Tom Rees, 6 Serge Betsen (c), 5 George Skivington, 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Pat Barnard, 2 Rob Webber, 1 Tim Payne.
Replacements: 16 Joe Ward, 17 Michael Holford, 18 Richard Birkett, 19 Dan Leo, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Dave Walder, 22 Rob Hoadley.
London Irish: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Elvis Seveali'i, 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 Adam Thompstone, 10. Shane Geraghty, 9 Paul Hodgson, 8 Chris Hala'Ufia, 7 Steffon Armitage, 6 Richard Thorpe, 5 Gary Johnson, 4 James Hudson, 3 Tonga Lea'aetoa, 2 James Buckland, 1 Clarke Dermody.
Replacements: 16 Alex Cornbisiero. 17 Danie Coetzee, 18 Jonathon Fisher. 19 Declan Danaher, 20 Sailosi Tagicakibau. 21 Peter Richards. 22 Mike Catt.