Former European champions Wasps head to the south of France looking to book a place in the last eight of the European Challenge Cup against Top 14 strugglers Biarritz.

England scrum-half Dan Robson returns while Josh Bassett drops to the bench.

Zach Kibirige is in on the left wing as Bassett ends an unbroken 72-game run.

The last time Bassett did not start a Wasps game was March 2019, but he has scored just one Premiership try this season.

Wasps, European champions in 2004 and 2007, enjoyed their first piece of European silverware in the second-tier competition in 2003.

They meet a club who have made two main European finals, in 2006 and 2010, beaten by Munster and Stade Toulouse. And they themselves won the Challenge Cup in 2012, beating Toulon, who they again beat last weekend, 20-17, to earn this meeting with Wasps.

Biarritz are bottom of the Top 14, having won just five of their 22 league games this season – but they are captained by former Saracens, London Irish, Toulon, Pau and England forward Steffon Armitage.

Wasps head coach Lee Blackett:

“It was looking like we could have potentially faced Saracens. There were several options, but we found out on Saturday night that we’d got Biarritz, then found out late on the Sunday that the game was on the Friday.

“Biarritz is somewhere I’ve never personally been but anyone who has watched rugby for the last 10 or 20 years knows what a massive club they are. We’re under no illusions. We know exactly what’s coming. We know we’re going to have to be at our best against a side that beat Toulon last weekend to put themselves in a position to play us.

“There’s a big feeling of knockout rugby in everything we do now. In the Premiership with four games to go, that’s knockout rugby, although we’re still reliant on other results. And this competition is purely in our own hands. You win three games you get a game in Marseille (the final on 27 May) .”

Biarritz: Team to follow.

Wasps: Umaga; Odogwu, Fekitoa, Gopperth, Kibirige; Atkinson, Robson; West, Oghre, Alo, Launchbury (capt), Stooke, Shields, J Willis, Barbeary.

Replacements: Frost, Harris, Millar-Mills, Cardall, T Willis, Porter, Spink, Bassett.

Referee: Chris Busby (Ireland).