Wasps vs Sale (or, the one that's not on television)

[Puja]

Wasps team to face Sale Sharks at the Ricoh Arena - Saturday 2 September, 3pm KO

15. Willie Le Roux
14. Christian Wade
13. Gaby Lovobalavu
12. Jimmy Gopperth
11. Josh Bassett
10. Danny Cipriani
9. Dan Robson
1. Simon McIntyre
2. Tom Cruse
3. Jake Cooper-Woolley
4. Joe Launchbury (c)
5. Kearnan Myall
6. Ashley Johnson
7. Alex Rieder
8. Nathan Hughes

16. Will Rowlands
17. Matt Mullan
18. Marty Moore
19. Matt Symons
20. Jack Willis
21. Joe Simpson
22. Juan De Jongh
23. Marcus Watson

[Puja]

TEAM: Mike Haley, Denny Solomona, Will Addison, Sam James, Byron McGuigan, AJ MacGinty, Faf de Klerk, Ross Harrison, Rob Webber, Halani Aulika, Bryan Evans, Josh Beaumont, Jono Ross, Ben Curry, Josh Strauss

Replacements: Marc Jones, James Flynn, Alex Tarus, Andrei Ostrikov, TJ Ioane, Tom Curry, Will Cliff and Mark Jennings

[Puja]

BCurry getting the nod first game to prove Eddie wrong for leaving him out of the EPS. Shame this one's not on television; looks like it could be a good match.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

BCurry getting the nod first game to prove Eddie wrong for leaving him out of the EPS. Shame this one's not on television; looks like it could be a good match.

Puja

Eh? The EPS hasn't been named has it?

AFAIK, he left him out of the last training squad but I'm not reading too much in to that.

I'd always heard Tom was the better of the Curry twins, but Ben comfortably out-performed him last season and it's worth noting that Ben was supposed to be on the bench ahead of Tom for the Barbarians game. Ben got a back spasm, Tom took his chance and deservedly started against Argentina. Realistically, all of Wilson, Underhill and both Curry twins were not likely to get game time against Argentina. I just put Ben's non-appearance down to bad luck and a poorly timed injury.

[fivepointer]

Like the look of that Sale team. I see Beaumont is in the 2nd row, which is where his future lies, and that back row looks a really nice mix. The centre pairing is one to keep an eye on. Shame there's no O'Connor as outside 10 this looks a decent side.

Willis on the Wasps bench is a young player seemingly on the rise.

Could be a very entertaining game.

[Puja]

BCurry getting the nod first game to prove Eddie wrong for leaving him out of the EPS. Shame this one's not on television; looks like it could be a good match.

Puja

Eh? The EPS hasn't been named has it?

AFAIK, he left him out of the last training squad but I'm not reading too much in to that.

I'd always heard Tom was the better of the Curry twins, but Ben comfortably out-performed him last season and it's worth noting that Ben was supposed to be on the bench ahead of Tom for the Barbarians game. Ben got a back spasm, Tom took his chance and deservedly started against Argentina. Realistically, all of Wilson, Underhill and both Curry twins were not likely to get game time against Argentina. I just put Ben's non-appearance down to bad luck and a poorly timed injury.

I've assumed that it's Eddie playing silly buggers with them, to be frank. Seems like his kind of thing - take identical twins that play in the same position in similar styles, tell one that he's better than the other and sit back to watch the reaction. There is no other reason for Tom to be in the training squad and Ben to be the only one of the newbies from Argentina (including Cokanasiga who also didn't get any gametime) not to be included. He's screwing with them to get a reaction and I actually expect him to get one - I think Ben will start the season with a bang.

I suspect it was originally going to be the other way around (with Ben being the chosen one and Tom being challenged to improve), but as you said, injury stopped Ben from playing Barbarians and then Argentina.

Puja

[Raggs]

21-0 at 18 minutes. Dan Robson with 2 (great support running, then a superb blindside run from a ruck), and Wade with 1 assisted by Cips after a nice turnover.

[Raggs]

Sale got one back, 21-7

[Banquo]

Robson seems to be having a (statistical) stormer!

[Banquo]

Sharks mounting a roaring comeback....and seemingly starting to dominate possession and territory

[Raggs]

Wasps subs killing their momentum, especially in the backs.

[Stom]

Robson seems to be having a (statistical) stormer!

And someone thought Heinz would be a better fantasy rugby bet

[Banquo]

Robson seems to be having a (statistical) stormer!

And someone thought Heinz would be a better fantasy rugby bet

need variety I suppose

[Banquo]

Wasps subs killing their momentum, especially in the backs.

thats certainly what it looked like, but worked out well in the end