Guy’s primed for ‘war’ against his old mates
LEICESTER TIGERS back rower Guy Thompson is braced for a huge battle on his first return to Wasps as a visiting player.
Thompson was an integral part of the Wasps set-up for five years before departing for Welford Road in June and says games between the old rivals are usually combustible.
With both sides needing victory after uncomfortable starts, Thompson told The Rugby Paper: “When I was at Wasps we knew games against Leicester would always be massively physical, especially around the breakdown and setpiece.
“That’s something Wasps will have been focussing on this week and it’s an area we want to be good in as well with the backline we’ve got.
“Both teams are firing there and if we can unleash our strike runners like Manu Tuilagi and Jonny May, we’ll cause them huge damage. It’ll be a battle of the backlines but they can only do that with the ball and it’s our job to stop them.
“When it’s finished it’ll be handshakes and pats on the back all round, but for 80 minutes these Wasps v Leicester matches are war!”
Thompson makes his first Tigers start in place of injured Brendon O’Connor, while Gareth Owen replaces Kyle Eastmond in the only other change to the starting XV that contributed to last week’s 49-33 thrashing of Newcastle. However, there are more changes on the bench with interim head coach Geordan Murphy handing chances to five of the club’s academy graduates in Joe Heyes, Sam Lewis, Ben White, Tom Hardwick and Jordan Olowofela.
Following the shock dismissal of Matt O’Connor in week one, Thompson believes Leicester have steadied the ship under Murphy. He said: “It’s not something I’d ever experienced in my career before and it’s never nice to see a man losing his job so soon. But to have the opportunity to work under Geordy now is csuperb and his first speech was very passionate.
“He was very open with the fact that this isn’t how he wanted the job because he and Matt were great friends, but in sport these things happen and Geordy’s taken it on and we’ll get behind him and try to make this a successful season.”
Thompson added: “Nothing’s changed much for the forwards, we’ve still got Mark Bakewell, Boris Stankovich and Brett Deacon coaching us, but there’s more confidence in the squad after last week’s big win over Newcastle.
“After losing badly at Exeter we felt we’d let everyone down and vowed it wouldn’t happen again, so this is another massive game.” Kiw fly-half Lima Sopoaga makes his highly anticipated first start for Wasps in a side that shows five changes after last week’s loss to Exeter.
Former Bedford Blue Mike Le Bourgeois is handed a debut at centre, while James Gaskell partners Joe Launchbury in the second row, Ashley Johnson is in for injured Brad Shields and Nizaam Carr returns to the back row after injury.
Boss Dai Young said: “We’ve had some tight games against our closest rivals geographically and this one will be no different.”
