London Irish v Wasps: Teams

London Irish hope to build upon last season's strong finish to the Guinness Premiership when they take on Wasps in the season opener on Saturday.

An impressive 22-man line-up boasts 10 full internationals, including England's Topsy Ojo and David Paice, eight of whom will appear in the starting XV.

Academy and England Under 20 prop, Alex Corbisiero will make his Guiness Premiership debut, as well as new signing Chris Hala'Ufia.

Locks Bob Casey and James Hudson and fly half Shane Geraghty are ruled out with injuries picked up in pre-season action and Declan Danaher is out with illness.

Head coach Toby Booth said: "We've gone for a tough pre-season to ensure that we're as battle hardened as we can be, although we've paid the price for that in some areas."

Meanwhile, Wasps start the season without new signings Serge Betsen and Mark Robinson due to injury.

Experience

Despite this, Booth is prepared for a tough match against this year's Heineken Cup winners.

He said: "Wasps are laced with talent and international experience that always comes to the fore on big occasions.

"Over the next five weeks we face five of the six teams that finished above us in the league last season. That's as tough a start as we've ever had so we'll need a little luck."

And a quick start is something Wasps director of rugby Ian Mcgeechan is after - despite his side tending to perform better at the business end of the season.

McGeechan said: "As ever we will be searching for honours in all three competitions and a good start to the season will be crucial to our campaign, especially as we anticipate such a depletion of our squad through the international period.

"We have undergone a successful pre-season campaign with three tough games against solid opponents, which has offered the full squad valuable game time ahead of the challenge of a new season.

"In London Irish we face a well organized and inventive opponent which means we are going to have to produce a top performance. We know we have a highly competitive game ahead of us and for both sides and those watching from the stands, it should be a great opening to the Guinness Premiership."

London Irish: 15 Peter Hewat, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Delon Armitage, 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10 Mike Catt (captain), 9 Paul Hodgson, 1 Alex Corbisiero, 2 Danie Coetzee, 3 Faan Rautenbach, 4 Gary Johnson, 5 Nick Kennedy, 6 Richard Thorpe, 7 Steffon Armitage, 8 Chris Hala'Ufia.
Replacements: 16 Dan Murphy, 17 David Paice, 18 James Buckland, 19 John Fisher, 20 Adam Thompstone, 21 Peter Richards, 22 Eoghan Hickey.

Wasps: 15 Mark Van Gisbergen, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Dominic Waldouck, 12 Josh Lewsey, 11 Tom Voyce, 10 Riki Flutey, 9 Eoin Reddan, 1 Tim Payne, 2 Raphael Ibanez (captain), 3 Pat Barnard, 4 Simon Shaw, 5 Richard Birkett, 6 Joe Worsley, 7 Tom Rees, 8 James Haskell.
Replacements: 16 Rob Webber, 17 Phil Vickery, 18 Tom Palmer, 19 John Hart, 20 Joe Simpson, 21 Jeremy Staunton, 22 Lachlan Mitchell