James Mackereth, Wasps Coach:
"I'm pleased with our first outing against Manchester, we were caught a little bit cold after a rushed warm up and they took a fairly early lead. The game could have gone either way and I'm more than pleased with the performance. In some difficult conditions we played some great stuff at times. I thought our 'old heads' did a fine job keeping things together and our new players were terrific. Everyone got a run, got hands on the ball and we're off and running in the right direction."
Last week's review and Sunday's preview
Training this week has been brilliant, the atmosphere and excitement with training being at the new club has brought real enjoyment. The game against Barnsley isn't fazing anyone and the girls have worked really hard to learn about how we want to play, which has been evident in the last two sessions.
More debuts this week... I thought Lindsey and Holly were great in how they imposed themselves coming off the bench and both are well placed to do the same from the off. Sam Clark has picked the game up really quickly, and will be another player who will ultimately be very versatile. A lot of plusses from last week: Cath Sewell was excellent controlling the game, working so well together with Fleur, putting us in all the right places and Samara Tomlinson was outstanding again! Amy Orrow scored a superb try in a great debut, whilst everybody got stuck in and shared the work around. Amy Beard's try at the end summed up the effort the pack put in, they literally battered the door down on the back of a really good show of keeping the ball tight.
We're missing a few faces this week, but we're a good, tight knit squad who have each others backs week after week, and we're all keen for Sunday whatever happens.
Selection for this week:
After making their league debuts off the bench against Manchester, Holly Howard and Lindsey Kendall both start against Barnsley. Sam Clark makes her league debut and Natalie Greenwood returns to the backline. Otherwise an unchanged side.