By Dom Benson
August 30 2002

Wasps kick off the new season away to Newcastle Falcons (Sunday at 2.30pm). We just failed to leapfrog the Falcons into sixth place in the final stages of the season. As it turned out, neither teams qualified for the Heineken Cup as 8th place Bristol stole into the Zurich Playoff final. That was no more than mid-table mediocrity deserved. This time around, Wasps are in much better nick. Almost all the players are fit - only Fraser Waters and Peter Scrivener are yet to put in an appearance, it seems. Trevor Leota is building up after helping Samoa qualify for the World Cup. Martyn Wood suffered a knee injury during the 7s final and Paul Sampson picked up a knock last week. Captain Lawrence Dallaglio is positively straining at the leash, wanting to give Tigers a run for their money. When someone like LBND starts saying Wasps must win the championship because he's not getting any younger then the squad better sit up and take notice!

Wasps pre-season build up has been eccentric in the extreme, encompassing a short, sharp, ice-cold shock in Poland followed by near success in the Middlesex Sevens - only a supremely fit, match sharp Bradford Bulls could stop our youngsters in the final, by the slender margin of 42-14.

Connacht visited a lush Adams Park a fortnight ago and found our soft points on the wings. That they were overcome 33-27 with a late surge from our old under-21s is food for thought. Then a contractual nightmare involving fielding teams in Bedford and Montferrand last Saturday gave the whole squad a punishing going over. The one point loss in Bedford could be put down to rustiness and was a game that should have been won. Losing by a street to Richard Cockerill's new buddies shows the French club's traditional welcome has not diminished one iota.

If Wasps has a lot to work on, the former league champions in Newcastle also needs to go back to the drawingboard. Rob Andrew has lost his Scottish Borderers in the shape of Armstrong, Weir and Graham (Dome will be disappointed) whilst his Samoan brothers Lam and Tuigamala have both retired. Shorn of such influential Northern Rocks, Falcons may struggle up front. Squeaky has signed Joe Shaw and Steve Brotherstone from Northampton and James Grindal from Leicester and snapped up Aussie Andrew Blades to coach the forwards.

Losing fullback Dave Walder to a broken leg and up-and-coming David Richardson to knee ligaments will keep our hosts on the back foot. If Wasps can't win handsomely on Sunday we should at least win more comfortably than our last minute victory last January and keep the home crowd grumbling - they seem less than impressed with the signing of Jonny Wilkinson's brother Mark. However, matches against the Wasps northern arm are traditionally close (see below).

Wasps:
15 Josh Lewsey; 14 Shane Roiser, 13 Stuart Abbott, 12 Mark Denney, 11 Kenny Logan; 10 Alex King, 9 Rob Howley; 1 Craig Dowd, 2 Phil Greening, 3 Will Green, 4 Simon Shaw, 5 Richard Birkett, 6 Joe Worsley, 7 Paul Volley, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio

Replacements
16 Harvey Biljon, 17 John Rudd, 18 Will Wigram, 19 Ben Gotting, 20 Joe Beardshaw, 21 Darren Molloy, 22 Michael McCarthy

Newcastle:
15 Liam Botham; 14 Joe Shaw, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Tom May, 11 Michael Stephenson; 10 Jonny Wilkinson (Capt.), 9 Hall Charlton; 1 Ian Peel, 2 Steve Brotherstone, 3 Marius Hurter, 4 Hugh Vyvyan, 5 Stuart Grimes, 6 Epi Taione, 7 Richard Arnold, 8 Jon Dunbar.

Replacements: TBA

Results against Budgies since 1998 (P10 W5 D1 L4 in Prem, P3 W2 L1 in Cup).

Newcastle 22 Wasps 23 : 27.1.02 - Zurich Premiership at Kingston Park.

Newcastle 24 Wasps 22 : 16.12.01 - Powergen Cup 6th round at Kingston Park.

Wasps 30 Newcastle Falcons 33 : 11.11.01 - Zurich Premiership at Loftus Road.

Wasps 44 Newcastle 7 : 28.3.01 - Zurich Premiership at Loftus Road.

Newcastle 59 Wasps 21 : 23.9.00 - Zurich Premiership at Kingston Park.

Newcastle 8 Wasps 34 : 12.3.00 - Allied Dunbar Premiership One at Kingston Park.

Wasps 36 Newcastle 30 : 30.1.00 - Tetley's Bitter Cup 5th round at Loftus Road.

Wasps 19 Newcastle 19 : 30.10.99 - Allied Dunbar Premiership Division One at Loftus Road.

Wasps 29 Newcastle 19 : 15.5.99 - Tetley's Bitter Cup final at Twickenham.

Wasps 34 Newcastle 33 : 18.4.99 - Allied Dunbar Premiership One at Loftus Road.

Newcastle 27 Wasps 19 : 11.10.98 - Allied Dunbar Premiership One at Gateshead.

Wasps 18 Newcastle 17 : 22.4.98 - Allied Dunbar Premiership One at Loftus Road.

Newcastle 20 Wasps 13 : 7.4.98 - Allied Dunbar Premiership One at Kingston Park.

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