The Newport Gwent Dragons team to play London Wasps at the Cardiff City Stadium this Sunday in the third round of Heineken Cup pool games has been announced.
Ashley Smith captains the Men of Gwent, who are without squad captain Tom Willis, who misses out with a recurring knee problem. Danny Lydiate has not yet recovered from a thigh strain, whilst Luke Charteris also remains absent.
Pat Leach, now registered for European action in place of the retired Danny Lee, continues at full back with Will Harries on the bench. Top try scorer Adam Hughes and Harries’ fellow Welsh international Aled Brew fill the wing berths. Tom Riley, a try-scorer against Munster, again starts alongside Smith in the centre, whilst the successful partnership of Wayne Evans and Jason Tovey fill the half-back positions. Matthew Jones and James Leadbeater are named as replacements.
In the forwards, the back row is unchanged from the Munster encounter, with Lewis Evans, Gavin Thomas and Toby Faletau all keeping their places, with Hugo Ellis – himself an ex-Wasp – covering from the bench. Rob Sidoli, who was set to miss the postponed Ulster clash, returns to the second row to partner Adam Jones. In Willis’ absence Lloyd Burns starts having impressed from the bench against Munster, and the front row is again completed by props Phil Price and Nigel Hall. Steve Jones, Hugh Gustafson and Ben Castle provide the front row cover, with Scott Morgan rounding off the substitutes.
Andrew Coombs, Nathan Brew and Tom Cheeseman, who were all named in Head Coach Paul Turner’s initial thirty-man squad for the Wasps game, are now likely to make their returns from rib, ankle and hamstring injuries respectively for Newport in their British and Irish Cup fixture at Worcester this Saturday.
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.
DRAGONS V WASPS
P Leach, A Hughes, T Riley, A Smith (c), A Brew; J Tovey, W Evans; P Price, L Burns, N Hall, A Jones, R Sidoli, L Evans, G Thomas, T Faletau.
Replacements: S Jones, H Gustafson, B Castle, S Morgan, H Ellis, J Leadbeater, W Harries, M Jones.
