Holden has made six changes from the starting line -up that lost to Northampton Saints last weekend.

Richard Haughton is out of the game as a result of an injury picked up last weekend, meaning that Mark van Gisbergen returns to the starting line-up at full back while Dom Waldouck, who pulled out of the side last weekend in the warm-up, returns to partner Riki Flutey in the centre. Joe Simpson returns to his favoured position of scrum half, allowing Christian Wade to take his place on the wing and make his first start in the Aviva Premiership Rugby.

The front row of Tim Payne, Rob Webber and Zak Taulafo remains unchanged from last weekend but in the second row Marty Veale returns to the team, replacing the injured captain Richard Birkett, to partner Simon Shaw.

John Hart keeps his place on the blind-side flank and is named as captain in the absence of Birkett. Joining him in the back row is Will Matthews at open-side, who impressed playing for the Wasps A team on his return from injury last week, and Andy Powell at eight, who was rested for the Northampton clash.

Looking ahead to the game Leon Holden said: “Despite a couple of injuries we have picked up, it is great to see a number of guys return to the squad who will give the team a really lift. Nobody was pleased with last week’s result and the squad has worked really hard this week to avoid a repeat. I was very happy with how well the Wasps A team performed in the week in beating their Gloucester counterparts and to reward that effort we have brought in Christian Wade on the wing and Joe Launchbury on the bench who are two young players with a huge future at Wasps.”

“As I said last week, with the middle section of the table being so tight, a run of good results at this stage of the season could drastically change the outcome of our season.”

London Wasps team to face London Irish on Sunday 3rd April, KO 3pm

15 Mark van Gisbergen
14 Christian Wade
13 Dom Waldouck
12 Riki Flutey
11 David Lemi
10 Dave Walder
9 Joe Simpson
1 Tim Payne
2 Rob Webber
3 Zak Taulafo
4 Simon Shaw
5 Marty Veale
6 John Hart (c)
7 Will Matthews
8 Andy Powell
16 Tom Lindsay
17 Charlie Beech
18 Ben Broster
19 Joe Launchbury
20 Dan Ward-Smith
21 Nic Berry
22 Josh Lewsey

Things didn’t start so well for the England, after a scrappy opening ten minutes the away side found themselves 7-0 down courtesy of a converted Edward Higgardy try after a quick break away from the pacy Wales No. 10 Matthew Morgan.

Minutes later England made it one try apiece. A quick passing move between the backs opened things up for London Wasps centre Elliot Daly who drew the defender in before offloading to Northampton Saints wing Jamie Elliott who dived over in the corner. Leciester Tigers fly half George Ford was unable to convert from a difficult angle.

Wales extended their lead through the boot of Morgan on 23 minute, making the score 10-5. This appeared to spark England into life as Mako Vunipola came close to burrowing over before the second try eventually came from Worcester’s Matt Kvesic, converting after a strong burst forward from Ford, who added the conversion.

England maintained their pressure and scored again soon after, courtesy of captain Alex Gray (Newcastle Falcons) who dashed through the posts, Ford added two more with the boot to make the score 10-19.

Moments later England got their fourth try, the impressive Kvesic jumped and caught an England restart before showing a quick turn off pace to score a try Wales really should have prevented.

A late penalty for Wales brought them back to within 13 points at half time with the score 13-26.

The second half was a somewhat different affair, England’s flowing, expansive rugby deserted them as they were pushed onto the back foot for the majority of the half. With ten minutes left to play Wales pressed hard and were almost rewarded after a strong drive from the forwards, the ball did cross the line but was deemed not to have been touched down by the TMO.

With England camped in their own 22, they then had to cope with the sin-binning of Sale Sharks prop Henry Thomas by Irish referee Dudley Phillips. Wales soon capitalised on their man advantage, carving out space for No. 8 Ben Thomas who scored to bring the home side to within a converted try of the lead at 20-26 with ten to play.

Wales, roared on by local support, continued to push but England’s defence stood firm and held out for the win.

Attendance: 2,989

England starting XV:

15) Ben Ransom (Saracens)
14) Andy Short (Worcester Warriors)
13) Elliot Daly (London Wasps)
12) Ryan Mills (Gloucester Rugby)
11) Jamie Elliott (Northampton Saints)
10) George Ford (Leicester Tigers)
9) Dan Robson (Gloucester Rugby)
1) Mako Vunipola (Bristol Rugby)
2) Mike Haywood (Northampton Saints)
3) Henry Thomas (Sale Sharks)
4) Kieran Low (London Irish)
5) Charlie Matthews (Harlequins)
6) Matt Kvesic (Worcester Warriors)
7) Matt Everard (Leicester Tigers)
8 ) Alex Gray (C) (Newcastle Falcons)

Replacements:

16) Rob Buchanan (Harlequins) on for Mike Haywood 54 mins
17) Ryan Bower (Leicester Tigers) on for Mako Vunipola 54 mins
18) Addison Lockley (Exeter Chiefs)
19) Ollie Stedman (Leeds Carnegie) on for Matt Everard 62 mins
20) Chris Cook (Bristol Rugby)
21) Guy Armitage (London Irish) on for Elliot Daly 75 mins
22) Christian Wade (London Wasps) on for Andy Short 54 mins

London Irish prop Alex Corbisiero comes in for Tim Payne (London Wasps) who has returned to his club for treatment to a sternum injury.

Gloucester Rugby wing James Simpson-Daniel has been added to the group training at Pennyhill Park as cover for Nick Abendanon (toe). Bath Rugby full back Abendanon remains with the squad for further assessment.

Bristol Rugby return to league action at home to London Welsh, looking to maintain their run of success in the British and Irish Cup Competition.

Bristol Head Coach Paul Hull has stuck largely with the squad that has performed well in recent matches.

The replacements bench shows a five/two forwards/backs split.

Bristol Rugby team to play at home to London Welsh on Sunday 30th January at 3:00pm

Jack Tovey, Anthony Elliott, Jack Adams, Junior Fatialofa, George Watkins, Adrian Jarvis, Richard Bolt, Mako Vunipola, Ross Johnston, Wayne Thompson, Roy Winters, Darren Barry, Iain Grieve ©, James Merriman, Dan Montagu.

Replacements:
Ollie Hayes, Darren Crompton, Mark Irish, Mariano Sambucetti , Jamie Miller, Robbie Shaw, Ed Barnes.

Both teams will be packed with English players as the Cup again demonstrates it has rapidly become the breeding ground for the Clubs’ best emerging talent.

After 13 Rounds of Aviva Premiership Rugby, the Clubs are running at an all-time high average of 67% English Qualified Players (EQP). But in the LV= Anglo Welsh Cup they are already running at an average of 72%, with some of the biggest Clubs like Leicester Tigers and Gloucester Rugby hitting 87% in the last round, meaning 20 of the 23 players involved were EQP.

In the short history of the LV=Anglo Welsh Cup players like Dan Cole, Joe Simpson, Andy Saull, Joe Marler and Owen Farrell have all made their debuts in the competition and are now making their mark in Aviva Premiership Rugby, Europe and even with England.

Corin Palmer, Head of Academies and Development at Premiership Rugby said “The Clubs have been investing strongly in their Academies for several years now and they are beginning to see a real return on that investment with the emergence of some immensely talented players who have been able to establish themselves very quickly at the top level.

“Our Clubs have been very excited for some time now about the quality of players coming through their academies and the LV=Anglo Welsh Cup provides a great competitive environment for them. It bodes very well for England over the coming years and in the lead up to Rugby World Cup 2015.”

The scan confirmed there was no major damage and he is due to return to training with the England squad when they reassemble at Pennyhill Park Hotel this weekend.

Ben a 22 year old, 6’4”, 17½ st ball carrying no 8 (or no 6), who was previously a student at Durham University, is currently studying Land Economy at St. Edmunds College Cambridge and won blues two years running.

He has recently been playing for London Wasps in the Aviva Premiership Rugby A League as well as in the 2010 Premiership 7s.

Ben will provide weight in the tight and the loose and is expected to raise further the competition for places among Moseley’s back row forwards.

Date of Birth: 28/05/1988
Position: No 8 (or 6)
Honours: England Students; Cambridge Blue; Wasps
Height 6′ 4 /1.93m; Weight 17st 6.7lb/111Kg

David joined the London Irish Academy in 2003 and went on to become an integral part of the club’s U19 team that won the National Cup that season. What was meant to be a year long stay turned into a permanent move after he was promoted to the first team and has since gone on to make 136 senior appearances for the club, scoring six tries.

The Australian born hooker has represented England Saxons and gained full international selection when he played against New Zealand in July 2008.

London Irish head coach, Toby Booth said: “I have worked very closely with David since he first joined us in 2003. He is an accomplished lineout thrower and is great in the loose. We are all delighted that he will be with us for a further three seasons.”

Commenting on his decision to extend his current contract, David said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at London Irish and I am sure I will continue to do so. We have a squad full of class players and I want to be with them challenging for titles over the coming seasons.”

The players called up are Northampton Saints flankers Tom Wood and Phil Dowson, Leicester Tigers lock George Skivington and Bath Rugby full back Nick Abendanon.

Wood and Dowson are injury replacements for Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers) and Lewis Moody (Bath Rugby). Skivington comes in for Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints) and Abendanon takes over from the suspended Delon Armitage (London Irish).

All four have joined the England squad training in Portugal this week as has Hendrie Fourie (Leeds Carnegie) who is being assessed by the England medical staff today after sustaining a calf injury at the weekend.

There are seven changes to the England Saxons squad preparing for games against Italy A at Worcester on Saturday and Ireland A in Belfast on February 4.

Gloucester Rugby prop Nick Wood, London Irish hooker James Buckland, Worcester Warriors lock Graham Kitchener, Leicester Tigers centre Manu Tuilagi and Gloucester Rugby full back Olly Morgan are named as injury replacements for Matt Mullan (Worcester Warriors), Rob Webber (London Wasps), Dan Ward-Smith (London Wasps), Mathew Tait (Sale Sharks) and Alex Goode (Saracens).

Harlequins lock George Robson replaces the suspended David Attwood (Gloucester Rugby) and Harlequins full back Mike Brown takes over from Abendanon following his promotion to the senior EPS.

Ulster’s youngsters led 17-3 at the half-time break but were overpowered in the second half by a far more experienced Neath side who scored two late tries to steal the victory.

Ulster Ravens: (15-9) Jamie Smith; Tommy Seymour, Michael Allen, Luke Marshall, Craig Gilroy; Patrick Jackson, Michael Heaney (1-8) Conor Carey, Niall Annett, Alan Whitten, Ryan Caldwell, Ian Henderson, Scott Lavella, David McGuigan, Neil McComb

Replacements: (16-22) John Burns, Kyle McCall, Ross Hackney, Paul Pritchard, Blane McIlroy, Niall O’Connor, Johnny Shiels