London Wasps v Gloucester Rugby Sunday 4th May 3pm
Current Form
· What a mouth-watering prospect at Adams Park on Sunday as 3rd placed Wasps entertain leaders Gloucester in a match that will have a significant bearing on the finishing positions in the Guinness Premiership.
· London Wasps are the form team in the competition and they have won their last 8 matches. They won at Saracens last time out and are 3rd in the table, 6 points behind Gloucester with a game in hand. Their last two games are both away from home, at out-of-sorts Newcastle and relegated Leeds. If they win on Sunday, then Wasps must be favourites to finish in top spot after the 22 rounds.
· They have played 10 home matches this season, winning 8 and losing to Saracens at Twickenham and Leicester at Adams Park.
· Gloucester beat Leeds last time out and remain at the top of the Premiership, a position they have occupied for most of the season. Their last 2 games are away to third placed Wasps on Sunday followed by a home game against second placed Bath the following week One win should be good enough to ensure a home tie in the play-offs, but 2 defeats will probably mean they will be playing away in the Premiership semi-finals.
· Gloucester have played 10 matches away from home this season, winning 4 and losing 6.
History
· London Wasps and Gloucester have met 25 times in league rugby since 1995.
· Wasps have won 17 and Gloucester 8.
· Gloucester have never won away at London Wasps in 12 league fixtures.
· Consequently, Gloucester have never completed a league double against Wasps.
· Wasps have completed 5 league doubles against Gloucester, in 1996, 1999, 2001, 2005 and 2006.
· Gloucester beat London Wasps 18-17 at Kingsholm in January.
Trends and Trivia
· London Wasps have won their last 8 matches in the Guinness Premiership. Between November 2003 and April 2004 they put together their record run of 11 consecutive victories in the Guinness Premiership.
· Although they have been Premiership champions 3 times in the last 5 years, Wasps have not finished top of the league table since 1996/97.
· London Wasps and Gloucester are the only two teams in the Premiership to have scored over 500 points this season.
· They are also the two top try scorers. Wasps have scored 55 and Gloucester 61.
· We should see a few points on Sunday. London Wasps have scored 288 points at home this season, the most by any team in the Premiership and Gloucester have scored 233 points away from home, the most by any team in the division.
· Danny Cipriani has scored 171 Premiership points for Wasps this season. Cipriani and Paul Sackey have both scored 6 tries. Sackey was the club’s leading tryscorer last season with 8.
· Danny Cipriani has kicked 33 conversions this season, the most in the league.
· Joe Ward has appeared in 18 of the 19 Premiership matches Wasps have played this season. Simon Shaw has played in 197 matches in the Premiership. If he plays in the last 3 Wasps matches he will become the first player to appear in 200 matches in Premiership rugby.
· London Wasps have an average attendance of 11705 this season including the 39400 for the opening fixture at Twickenham. At Adams Park they have a Premiership average crowd of 8628. They had 10000 for the Bath and Harlequins matches and only 6629 for the visit of London Irish. Interesting when you consider the reverse fixture set a Premiership record high of 23709 for a club ground.
· Gloucester are top of the league at present and finished top in 2002/03 and 2006/07. Unfortunately, they have never managed to become Premiership champions.
· They have scored 61 tries this season. The most they have ever scored in the Premiership is 68 in both 1999/00 and 2001/02.
· Gloucester have played 10 away matches this season and come away with 9 bonus points.
· Gloucester have scored 35 tries in the second-half of their matches this season, the most in the Premiership. London Wasps have scored 29 tries in the first-half of their matches this season, the most by any club in the Premiership.
· Along with Harlequins, Gloucester have had the fewest penalties scored against them this season, just 35 in 20 matches.
· Ryan Lamb has scored 139 Premiership points for Gloucester this season and Willie Walker has 77. Walker was the leading scorer last season with 159.
· Ryan Lamb will become the first Englishman to be the leading points scorer in a Premiership season for Gloucester since Mark Mapletoft in 1998/99. Simon Mannix, Ludovic Mercier, Henry Paul and Willie Walker are the overseas players to have topped the list.
· Lesley Vainikolo has scored 9 tries in his first season in rugby union and James Simpson-Daniel has scored 7. In the history of the Premiership, 5 Gloucester players have scored 9 tries in a season, but nobody has managed to get into double figures.
· Anthony Allen and Peter Buxton have both played in 18 of Gloucester’s 20 Premiership matches this season. |
