Match Preview

Sunday sees the Wasps go on the road for the first time this season, as they travel to Chester Devas. After an encouraging performance last week against Crewe, the Wasps again field a strong side as they look to develop the attractive style that served them well last week in pursuit of a win on the road.

Team News:

Samara Tomlinson captains the side from the second row, with Hayley Hodgson her deputy moving into the centres. Natasha Kitchen starts alongside her after a great show off the bench last week, and Eve Joseph starts on the blindside after coming on last week. A new look front row sees Vicki Nelmes move forward and Flick Shaw move off the bench. A reshuffled back line sees Susie Winter make her debut and Rowan Boardley return in the back three, with a new look midfield and half back pairing, not to mention a strong bench , highlighting the depth available at the moment.

Coach's Thoughts (James Mackereth)

After having played Crewe mid season in the Cup last year, we were under no illusions of the task ahead last week, and I thought we were great, definitely a little bit unlucky on the scoreboard after a questionable try and a really late finish to put us away, but the girls can take a lot of positive stuff from the game. We're working hard to embrace a new style of play, the level of fitness required to do this was very apparent on Tuesday, but I'm delighted that we're making the right moves towards making this style our own. We're becoming more tactically astute too, to claw back 15 points last week was on the back of some smart thinking and a mountain of effort, which was typified by the performance of Laura Mason. She's set the benchmark of the workrate required, which nobody is scared of aspiring to going forward. As I've said to the girls through training this week, if we can inject a few spells of our structure and shape, we'll turn a few heads in the matches ahead. We'll respect Chester this weekend, we've had good games down here in seasons gone by and they're a great club with a super facility, but we'll come to play and press on. Samara Tomlinson was fabulous last week, and she'll lead the team well I've no doubt. Looking forward to the game, good luck to all involved.