| Venue: Ricoh Arena Date: Saturday, 2 January Kick-off: 14:00 GMT Coverage: Updates on BBC local radio and live scores on the BBC Sport website |
Wasps face a rematch of the 2020 Premiership final as they play host to domestic and European champions Exeter Chiefs in their first fixture of 2021.
Without injured in-form loose forward Alfie Barbeary (ankle) and wing Zach Kibirige (concussion protocol), Wasps recall Jacob Umaga at outside half.
Exeter, chasing a fifth straight league win, lose Stuart Hogg (hamstring) and lock Jannes Kirsten (facial injury).
They have also chosen to rest six international players.
England quartet Luke Cowan-Dickie, Harry Williams, Jonny Hill and Henry Slade and Scotland’s Jonny Gray and Sam Skinner are all given a breather.
Sam Hidalgo-Clyne makes his first league start of the season at scrum-half, with Tom O’Flaherty replacing Hogg at full-back and Ian Whitten switching to the wing.
The Ricoh Arena meeting of last year’s league winners and the beaten finalists comes just 10 weeks on from the Chiefs’ narrow 19-13 Twickenham triumph.
This will be Wasps’ fourth meeting with Exeter in a little over 12 months.
Wasps were well beaten 38-3 at Sandy Park in November 2019 and, when Chiefs sent a second-string side north to the Ricoh Arena in early October, just two weeks before the Premiership final, they were soundly beaten 46-5.
But Exeter have started this season in exemplary form with 20 tries from four straight bonus-point wins.
Last season’s European player of the year Sam Simmonds has got eight of those tries – an average of two a game, when no other Premiership player has scored more than three in total. Yet still he remains seemingly on the periphery of England coach Eddie Jones’ plans.
Only two opposition players have crossed the whitewash against them in the Premiership, Leicester lock Calum Green and Gloucester replacement back Toby Venner’s two last weekend.
And they have done it all to the distracting backdrop of a pre-Christmas Covid-19 outbreak that caused the cancellation of their Champions Cup fixture with Toulouse – followed by doubt right up to Christmas Eve as to whether the Boxing Day trip to Gloucester would go ahead.
Wasps head coach Lee Blackett:
“We’ve got most of our internationals back this week, so it feels like an injection of energy coming back into the squad.
“What a great challenge it is to take on the European and Premiership champions. That’s something we’re excited about.”
Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter MBE:
“Wasps are on form and are coming into this game on the back of a very good win up at Sale. Nobody appreciates more than me how difficult it is to win at Sale. Lee Blackett has really got them buzzing.
“I’m sure they’ll be looking for a spot of revenge after last season’s final. We just want to move forward and put the recent disruptions behind us.”
Wasps: Sopoaga; Odogwu, de Jongh, Le Bourgeois, Bassett; Umaga, Robson; West, Cruse, Brookes, Launchbury (capt), Rowlands, Gaskell, J Willis, T Willis.
Replacements: Taylor, McIntyre, Toomaga-Allen, Morris, Young, Porter, Atkinson, Gopperth.
Exeter: O’Flaherty; Woodburn, Hendrickson, Devoto, Whitten; J Simmonds, Hidalgo-Clyne; Hepburn, Yeandle (capt), Street, Witty, Armand, Ewers, Capstick, S Simmonds.
Replacements: Innard, Kenny, Francis, Price, Tuima, Maunder, H Skinner, Hodge.
Referee: Ian Tempest.
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