Tigers are a different animal

By Ben Blackmore  

Tigers are a different animal

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Teams

Players

 Wasps

v

Leicester

Guinness Premiership, Causeway Stadium, Saturday September 10th, KO 2.45pm, live on Sky Sports

Wasps' Richard Birkett believes that Leicester are a class above Saracens, and that his team-mates will need to raise their game in order to get a result on Saturday.

Wasps chalked up a 23-11 victory over the Sarries on the opening day of the Guinness Premiership season, in a match between two sides tipped by many to be in the shake-up at the end of the campaign.

However, whilst Birkett acknowledges the strength of the Saracens line-up, he insists that the visit of the Tigers will be the true acid test.

"Leicester always have a big forward pack and a good scrum,‚Ç¥ said Birkett.

‚Ç£Saracens were also packing down strongly last Saturday, and whilst that was good preparation for us, we need to step up and improve on our performance this weekend.

‚Ç£We were still ring rusty against Saracens last week, but we'll work hard on that this week.

"I'm confident about what we can do after getting the result on Saturday, we didn't play that well and so that makes it even more impressive that we managed to create as much as we did.

"Leicester are a really physical team, big strong guys who are able to defend well.

"It's always a challenge to compete against their professionalism at the breakdown, but we will be aiming to wear them down, clear out well, and play to our strengths of attacking rugby."

Both sets of players will be looking to gain an early upper hand in the Premiership when they meet at the Causeway Stadium, and the encounter is sure to provide plenty of fireworks.