Jake Cooper-Woolley v. Tom Court
Wasps’ tight head is growing in authority this season, as part of a scrummage which has performed strongly in most matches.
Cooper-Woolley’s progress is shown by the fact that Italian international prop Lorenzo Cittadini has only been awarded one start to date.
The 26-year-old Londoner is also strong defensively, and carries the ball well at close quarters.
Wasps’profile has been boosted by recent successes, and while Cooper-Woolley is not one of the club’s bigger names, England are not overflowing with quality tight heads, so continued good form could see him enter Six Nations contention.
Australian-born Tom Court has 32 Irish caps, and was also part of the successful British & Irish Lions tour in 2013.
Court qualifies for Ireland through his grandparents, and after switching allegiance from athletics to rugby, settled with Ulster, for whom he made over 100 appearances.
He joined London Irish at the start of last season, and forms part of an all-international front row tomorrow with World Cup winner Ben Franks and England’s David Paice.
Court weighs in at nearly 20 stone, but at 6ft4 is tall for a loose head, which may give Cooper-Woolley a scrummaging opportunity to exploit.
Elliot Daly v. Aseli Tikoirotuma
After narrowly missing out on World Cup selection, Wasps’ centre Elliot Daly is now in outstanding form for his club.
His balanced running offers a continuous threat in the wide channels, while his early season inaccuracy with the final pass has disappeared in recent weeks.
Daly’s howitzer left boot has also featured prominently, and he has now kicked six penalty goals from around the 50 metre mark.
After Dai Young tried different partners for Daly in each of the opening three matches, his understanding with the solid Ben Jacobs was a feature of the two recent European Cup triumphs.
Fijian paceman Aseli Tikoirotuma is equally at home on the wing or in the centre, where he appears today.
The 29-year-old, who has joined the Exiles this season from Harlequins, appeared in three of Fiji’s World Cup matches, and now has 17 caps for his country.
Interestingly, he links up with his former-Waikato Chiefs coach Tom Coventry at the Madejski, who will be hoping Tikoirotuma is able to reproduce the powerful running which saw him impress during the Chiefs Super Rugby winning campaign in 2012.
