Worcester Warriors make five changes for Sunday’s Guinness Premiership visit to London Wasps from the starting line-up that scored a vital win at Franklin’s Gardens on New Year’s Day.
Matt Powell returns at scrum-half, with namesake Ryan moving to the bench, while Kai Horstmann takes the Number 8 berth, and Chris Fortey and Darren Morris come in to join Chris Horsman in the front row.
Director of rugby John Brain’s selection means James Brown will start at fly-half, with Shane Drahm at full-back, and Gary Trueman keeping his place at centre alongside Dale Rasmussen. Illness forces Aisea Havili to miss the match, meaning Thinus Delport comes in on the right wing, with Mark Tucker joining the replacements bench, where Tom Harding takes a seat in place of hamstring-victim Thomas Lombard. After Monday’s 9-10 victory, Brain knows that the trip to Adams Park will be the stiffest test yet of his team’s much-improved defensive strength, which has seen them concede just nine tries and 10 scoring penalties in the past seven matches.
“They are a quality team,” he says. They’ll be smarting from defeat against Bath and will be confident about getting five points against us, but I don’t think they’ll take us lightly. I wouldn’t expect them to score four tries. I expect it to be extremely competitive.”
Team: 01 Darren Morris, 02 Chris Fortey, 03 Chris Horsman, 04 Craig Gillies, 05 Tim Collier, 06 Drew Hickey, 07 Pat Sanderson (c), 08 Kai Horstmann, 09 Matt Powell, 10 James Brown, 11 Marcel Garvey, 12 Gary Trueman, 13 Dale Rasmussen, 14 Thinus Delport, 15 Shane Drahm
Replacements: 16 Tevita Taumoepeau, 17 Aleki Lutui, 18 Phil Murphy, 19 Gavin Quinnell, 20 Tom Harding, 21 Ryan Powell, 22 Mark Tucker