Wasps vulnerable at Sunbury

Such is the nature of the Irish psyche that the anti-climactic London Irish display against Gloucester last week was almost inevitable after the high of beating Stade Francais in the European Conference seven days before. So it stands to reason that London Irish will invariably up their performance for the visit of English League champions Wasps to Sunbury tomorrow.

All of this, of course, is almost an Irish cliche by now, a point Willie Anderson has hammered home to his players this week. But the London Irish coach certainly predicts that "you'll see a very good performance this weekend. This is a game (against Wasps) in which we've always performed well whereas, perversely, we've a long losing streak against Gloucester. It will be a very good game."

Anderson's view is substantiated by the two close-run encounters of last season when Irish pushed Wasps to a 22-20 margin at Sunbury and a 31-18 win at Loftus Road.

Gabriel Fulcher continues to deputise for Jeremy Davidson after replacing him nine minutes into the Gloucester defeat while in the only change from that starting line-up Mark McCall returns at centre for Sean Burns.

Wasps, themselves stung by Saracens last week in only their second ever league defeat at Loftus Road and first reverse of the season, have been forced to change their England half-backs Alex King and Andy Gomarsall, sidelined for three months and three weeks, respectively, due to disc and knee operations.

However, their vastly superior strength in depth enables them to call up the highly regarded 20year-old ex-English Colts and Schools scrum-half Martyn Wood as well as one-time English under21 and Students out-half Guy Gregory.

Rob Henderson returns at centre for a first visit to his old stomping ground while up front Wasps can use their `rota' system by bringing in Western Samoan hooker Trevor Leota, 38-times capped Scottish lock Damien Cronin and English sevens flanker Joe Worsley.

Pat Whelan will be at this game while Irish coach Brian Ashton and co-selector Donal Lenihan will run the rule over prospective members of the team to face the All Blacks when Harlequins host Sale today.

However, they could not confirm whether Dylan O'Grady would be returning to action in this game while Richard Wallace's mooted return for Saracens has again been delayed for another week - all of which is likely to delay the selection of the side to play the All Blacks until next Sunday at the earliest.

On the local front, Rory Sheriff makes his debut for unbeaten Section A pace-setters Terenure against Monkstown at Lakelands Park this afternoon in the Leinster Championship.

A home victory would copperfasten Terenure's place in the semi-finals alongside Co Carlow and Clontarf, but they could probably afford to lose and still qualify for the last four.

Second-placed Lansdowne, four points adrift of Terenure on 24 points and one ahead of Greystones, could also qualify for the semi-finals were they to pick up maximum points at home to DLSP (in fourth place on 21 points) in a game that has been brought forward to today. Otherwise, it will go to the wire when Greystones host Lansdowne in the final round next weekend.