Wasps v Sale Sharks Premiership Preview

Wasps’ Director of Rugby Dai Young has named Simon McIntyre to make his 100th appearance for Wasps in Sunday’s Aviva Premiership match against Sale Sharks at the Ricoh Arena.

Sam Jones captains the side, in the absence of the injured George Smith.

The Wasps backline remains unchanged for a fourth successive week, with just one change in the pack, where Nathan Hughes starts at eight in the place of Smith, Sam Jones moving to six and Thomas Young to seven.

Ahead of the game, which sees third-placed Wasps take on eighth-placed Sale Sharks with just ten points between them, Director of Rugby Dai Young said:

“We were very pleased with our performance last weekend, in a high intensity, hugely physical battle, but that game is now gone and our challenge is to match that level of performance against a very aggressive, physical Sale Sharks side.

“We don’t need to think too far back to remember how Sale beat us at the AJ Bell Stadium, where we were disappointed in our performance. We know that Sale will punish us, as they have done in the past, if we are not at the top of our game, so we have to play with real tempo, pace and penetration.

“With the league as tight as it is currently, with the gap between third and eighth so narrow, one win or loss can completely change how the table looks. The challenge for us is backing up last weekend’s performance with another one on Sunday.”

Wasps only defeat in Aviva Premiership Rugby since they went down at Sale on 2nd January was 10-13 at Gloucester in round 15.

Wasps have won their last five encounters at Ricoh Arena in all tournaments since Saracens beat them there over Christmas in Premiership Rugby.

Sale Sharks only victory in their last four Aviva Premiership Rugby fixtures was 29-23 at home to Harlequins in round 15.

The Sharks have won on the road in the tournament just once this season: 10-3 at Leicester on 6th February.

Wasps only victory over Sale in their last eight fixtures in all tournaments was 41-16 in this equivalent fixture at the Ricoh Arena last season.

Sale Sharks Director of Rugby Steve Diamond has made several changes to the team that lost at Northampton.

Match : Wasps v Sale Sharks
Date : Sunday 20 March
Venue : Ricoh Arena,
Kick Off : 2pm
Live on: N.A
Match Officials
Referee :Dean Richards (87th Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Paul Burton & Andy Watson.
TMO: Sean Davey.

Teams

Wasps

15. Rob Miller, 14. Christian Wade, 13. Charles Piutau, 12. Siale Piutau, 11. Frank Halai, 10. Jimmy Gopperth, 9. Dan Robson, 8. Nathan Hughes, 7. Thomas Young, 6. Sam Jones (c), 5. Kearnan Myall, 4. James Cannon, 3. Jake Cooper-Woolley, 2. Ashley Johnson ,1. Simon McIntyre

Replacements : 16. Carlo Festuccia, 17. Tom Bristow, 18. Phil Swainston, 19. Will Rowlands, 20. Alex Rieder, 21. Jamie Stevenson, 22. Ruaridh Jackson, 23. Brendan Macken

Sale Sharks

Mike Haley, Tom Brady, Jonny Leota, Mark Jennings, Nev Edwards, Danny Cipriani, Peter Stringer, Ross Harrison, Neil Briggs, Brian Mujati, Jonathan Mills, Andrei Ostrikov, Magnus Lund, David Seymour (Captain), Mark Easter

Replacements : Cameron Neild, James Flynn, Ciaran Parker, TJ Ioane, Viliami Fihaki, James Mitchell, Joe Ford, Sam James