By Ian Todd
February 17 2006

Back in October Wasps edged a close game 21 - 16 at a chilly Causeway Stadium. We even had chances to win, with the narrow in-goal area defeating a David Lemi chase. In the end though, the harsh sin-binning of Sam Cox and some inspired running by Voyce, cost us dear.
At that stage of the season a bonus point away to a side of the calibre of Wasps was generally felt to be a good result. We come to the return fixture in a rather different position, no wins so far this year and two league defeats against teams in the relegation mix. The narrow loss to Worcester was disappointing and the defeat by Leeds, without even a bonus point to show for a good second half, leaves us just one place from bottom.

We need to get a win on Sunday to get the season back on track, and it would be nice if a few of the other results went our way. The confrontation in the back row will be crucial. If we shade this area of the game, the Bristol half-backs will have a chance to control the game. Tommy Hayes gets his chance to start in the Premiership for the first time for Bristol. Frankly, I haven’t seen enough of him to know if he is the solution to Bristol’s problems at fly-half, but we know he has a long range kick and is a good distributor of the ball. Equally, he has the reputation of being either very good or very poor. Let’s hope it’s the former and that the forwards give him the sort of platform that will allow a good Bristol back line to get some points on the board.

Wasps come into this game with some recent performances that fall some way below the standards they have set in the league. The break in the Six Nations may well be in their favour, but I believe that Bristol have the ability to win what I am sure will be a very close match.