Newport Gwent Dragons Head Coach Paul Turner has named a thirty man squad for the Heineken Cup match against London Wasps this Sunday 12 December. The squad includes Pat Leach, who has been registered for European competition in place of the retired Danny Lee. Ashley Smith is named as captain, with a decision on Tom Willis’ fitness due to be made tomorrow.
“Wasps are a great side, they have some very good players, including internationals, and pace right through the team”, said Smith.
“We’ve had some good games with them in the last few years and acquitted ourselves well. They’ll be targeting this game to push them up the pool table, although they’re the kind of side who target a win wherever they go. Like we always do at Rodney Parade, we’ll come at them at a hundred miles an hour and give it everything we’ve got, hopefully with a passionate crowd behind us to give them a welcome to Rodney Parade they won’t forget.”
Paul Turner said: “We felt we probably missed an opportunity against Glasgow in the first round of games, and we got much closer to Toulouse than the result suggested. Wasps are in great form at the moment, but we have beaten another good Premiership side, Gloucester, last month.”
“Our set-piece will have to be spot on, and we’ll have to deal with the traditional Wasps blitz defence – lots of teams can’t cope with it, so we’ll have to be at our best to get a result.”
The Dragons lost 21-13 in Glasgow and were beaten 40-19 by a strong Toulouse side at Rodney Parade in the first two rounds of Heineken Cup games, though they have since recorded impressive wins over Gloucester in the LV= Cup, and the Ospreys and Munster in the Magners League.
Wasps were narrowly beaten 18-16 in Toulouse, before beating Glasgow 38-26 at home at Adams Park. They sit fifth in the Aviva Premiership, having won their last four league games, including wins over London Irish at home and Bath away.
The sides have met twice before, both times in the then EDF Anglo-Welsh Cup. The Dragons lost 21-10 in High Wycombe in November 2008, and held Wasps to a 3-3 draw in wet conditions at Rodney Parade back in October 2007. The back-to-back meetings this weekend and next are their first in European competition.
Newport Gwent Dragons squad for Wasps:
BACKS: Pat Leach, Will Harries, Adam Hughes, Aled Brew, Nathan Brew, Tom Cheeseman, Tom Riley, Ashley Smith (c), Matthew Jones, Jason Tovey, James Leadbeater, Wayne Evans.
FORWARDS: Phil Price, Pat Palmer, Nigel Hall, Hugh Gustafson, Ben Castle, Tom Willis, Steve Jones, Lloyd Burns, Scott Morgan, Robert Sidoli, Adam Jones, Luke Charteris, Andrew Coombs, Hugo Ellis, Lewis Evans, Toby Faletau, Gavin Thomas, Danny Lydiate.
