Wasps return to European club rugby’s top table after a four-year absence during which the two-times champions came within a minute of being wound up. The club’s decision to move to Coventry in December caused consternation among supporters, but officials maintain that remaining in Wycombe would not just have made qualification for the Champions Cup unlikely, it would have jeopardised their top-flight status.
Wasps face Leinster at the RDS Stadium in Dublin on Sunday. Their last fixture in the tournament was in January 2011 when they defeated Toulouse at Adams Park and they have a strong record against the Irish provinces in the tournament – nine victories and three defeats – but the match represents a new experience to many in the squad.
“It will be a bit of a baptism of fire for the boys and it’s my job to prepare them for what will happen on Sunday,” says the Wasps captain, James Haskell, a European Cup winner in 2004 and 2007. “They don’t know what it’s like to go to a place like Leinster with their passionate home crowd in Dublin. I have told the guys it will be like a Test match, which means you keep running and running and if you come off the pitch with any energy you haven’t put in the required performance.”
Wasps have been in the same group as Leinster once before, in 2008-09, although they defeated them 35-13 in the 2007 quarter-final on their way to the trophy. “They beat us 41-11 when we were last in Dublin [in October 2008],” says Haskell. “They had Brian O’Driscoll then and he scored two tries. We are coming off the back of a good win over Bath and we have all stopped talking about the move to Coventry and are getting on with it.”
Wasps have yet to win away this season but they qualified for the Champions Cup by defeating Stade Français in a play-off in Paris. Leinster’s captain, the Ireland and Lions Jamie Heaslip, says they were wary of the threat that the Premiership club posed out wide.
“They are a side that punishes your mistakes and they have incredible finishers in Tom Varndell, who is the second-highest try scorer in the history of the Premiership, and Christian Wade, who I played alongside with the Lions last year and watched him in training. We are in a interesting group with Castres and Harlequins. All the teams are very different.”
Leinster’s defence of their Guinness Pro12 title has started shakily, with defeats in Glasgow and Connacht followed by a 34-23 reverse against Munster at the Aviva Stadium. “We are not lingering on the Munster game,” said Heaslip. “You lose big matches every so often. And move on.”
The England prop Matt Mullan is one of the Wasps players experiencing the European Cup for the first time. “The new format this year means every group is tough,” he says. “We are excited as players and we want to prove that we should be at this level. Leinster have international players across the board and we have the opportunity to prove ourselves.”
