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Wasps will be hoping to stay in the hunt for quarter-final qualification by doing the double over Castres Olympique in their last European tie at Adams Park.
The club is upping sticks and moving to Coventry and will play London Irish at their new home at the Ricoh Arena next week. But before they head to the Midlands they need to chase another five points to help erase the bitter memory of their defeats in the opening two rounds.
“The players are fully focused on the 80 minutes of rugby ahead of them on Sunday, but we appreciate it will be a significant occasion for our supporters, as well as a significant game of rugby,” said director of rugby Dai Young.
“It would be nice to sign off at Adams Park with a great performance and a great win. It would be a fitting way to thank our fans for the support they’ve shown there over the years. This a huge match for us in Europe.
“We were really pleased with the bonus point win in the South of France last Sunday, but we know the job is only half done. An away win last week means nothing if we don’t back it up on Sunday.
“Castres have some really good individual players and if it clicks for them, they could be really dangerous. I’m expecting Castres to really give it their best shot and if we’re not concentrating fully for 80 minutes, it could be a banana skin for us.
“Coming into these two European matches, I always said we would need to win both to have a realistic chance of progressing. Obviously, we’ll also need to do well in our final two pool games, but certainly a win today would keep us in there fighting with two games to go.”
Castres have yet to win in Pool 2 and will be playing for pride more than anything else.
Match Facts
- Wasps victory over Castres Olympique last weekend was just their fourth win on French soil in the Champions Cup and their second largest winning margin in France.
- Wasps have now won their last two games against French opposition in the tournament; they have not won three in a row since 2003/04 when they won four on the bounce against French opponents.
- Sailosi Tagicakibau ranked =1st for clean breaks (3) and =2nd for defenders beaten (5) amongst all teams last weekend.
- Castres have lost their last six games in this competition, but they have never lost seven in a row.
Wasps said farewell to Adams Park in real style with Tom Varndell and Ben Jacobs each going over for two of the seven super tries and outstanding No 8 Nathan Hughes collecting the final Heineken man-of-the-match award presented at the ground.
Collectively they backed up their bonus point 32-17 victory on the road at Castres a week earlier with yet another five pointer to make sure it will be a three-way fight with Leinster and Harlequins for Pool 2 honours.
The club had collected eight trophies in their 12-year stay at the ground – including two European crowns and a Challenge Cup triumph – and the High Wycombe venue was awash with emotion for the final match before the relocation to Coventry.
With the atmosphere one of a party nature from the off Dai Young’s men took just four minutes to get the place really rocking.
Prop Jake Cooper-Woolley profited from some quick thinking and passing to force his way over for the first of four first half tries that had the bonus point safely banked by the break.
Andy Goode – who had hit the left upright with an earlier penalty goal chance – was on target with a straight forward effort but did not have his best kicking boots on as Wasps did it with the ball in hand.
A clever pass from captain James Haskell ended with Hughes galloping over and getting try No 2 despite the close attentions of three Castres defenders and although the French club briefly interrupted the Wasps wave with a try from hooker Marc-Antoine Rallier it was only a blip.
Great build-up work by lock Kearnan Myall set up Varndell to turn on the after burners to leave the French defence clasping at thin air, the England winger racing over for his 37th European try in 45 appearances and his 17th in the elite Euro event.
And there was more long range fireworks when the Wasps pack made a mess of a French scrum and centre Jacobs showed everyone a clean pair of heels for the bonus point party to start in earnest with another half still to come.
But with the job as good as done, Castres scored their second try 14 minutes after the restart with Scottish international Max Evans going over and getting the verdict after Irish referee John Lacey had gone upstairs to the TMO for confirmation.
That simply stung Wasps back into try-scoring action as Jacobs turned provider with a long floated pass for Varndell to canter over for his second and Wasps’ fifth – Goode’s woes with the boot continuing with yet another attempt bouncing back out off an upright.
That still left them with a healthy 20-points advantage and the pack then took centre stage with a formidable scrum drive that had Castres in rapid retreat and the fans back on song.
But it was a line-out that produced the goods as replacement Guy Thompson was driven over by his fellow forwards with Alex Lozowski adding a superb conversion.
There was still time for Florian Houerie to go over from close range but Jacobs had the final word with the ball in hand to make it that magnificent seven with his second of a memorable leaving party.
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