European Champions Cup 2015/16: Wasps tuned up for tilt at Toulon’s rock stars

A look at this weekend's European Champions Cup action

Bryan Habana is just one of Toulon’s glittering stars (Getty Images)

Wasps v Toulon - Sunday, 5.15pm

If Wasps are the most talked-about club in England, their rock-star opponents are the most heavily discussed in the northern hemisphere. Toulon have bagged their European titles in double-quick time – make that treble-quick, given that there have been three of them – and judging by the line-up they intend to field this weekend, they are in no mood to relent. Mathieu Bastareaud, Bryan Habana, Quade Cooper, Juan Fernandez Lobbe... how’s that for a snapshot of a team?

Yet David Young’s men will fancy their chances of taking something from the game, partly because their comprehensive victory over Leinster in Dublin last weekend has put them in high good humour and partly because Toulon, yet to open their account due to the enforced postponement of their opening match for reasons too grim to mention, are rarely at their best in the pool stage. There are big chances here for the likes of Elliot Daly, Joe Simpson, Jake Cooper-Woolley and Nathan Hughes.

Bath v Leinster - Saturday, 3.15pm

The West Countrymen, far from the most popular side in Christendom for any number of reasons, have little option but to win this one if they are serious about progressing to the knockout phase. Francois Louw, as good an open-side flanker as exists in the sport, leads a team full of pace and ambition out wide, but perhaps just a little ho-hum in the tight five. Leinster, thoroughly humiliated by their implosion on home soil against Wasps, are much transformed in the personnel department. Isa Nacewa, Luke Fitzgerald, Isaac Boss and Rhys Ruddock are among the big-hitters restored to duty.

Glasgow v Northampton - Saturday, 5.15pm

This will tell us a lot about both sides. Glasgow, one of the most exciting works currently in progress, look fully armed: with Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Mike Blair in the spine of the back division and Jonny Gray and the phenomenal Fijian lock Leone Nakarawa together in the boilerhouse of the scrum, you have to like the look of them. Northampton are not in such a great place, but they chiselled out a victory over Scarlets last weekend and, even though Dylan Hartley is still missing following a smack on the head a fortnight ago, they are equipped to squeeze some Scottish pips up front. It could be the game of the weekend.

Exeter v Bordeaux-Begles - Saturday, 7.45pm

Henry Slade, the Exeter midfielder and England saviour-in-waiting, moves from No 13 to No 10 after the misfire at Ospreys six days ago, so it seems that the Devonians are doing everything in their power to keep him away from the No 12 role, in which so many people expect him to perform during the Six Nations. Rob Baxter has performed major surgery on his West Country pack: only two of those who started in Swansea, the lock Damian Welch and the flanker Julian Salvi, remain in place. The Frenchmen do not look particularly frightening, but they have Lionel Beauxis, one of the world’s finest goal-kickers, lurking around at outside-half.

Treviso v Leicester - Saturday, 1pm

Leicester have had their share of problems down Venice way in the past, but it is hard to see the Midlanders struggling today. Mathew Tait’s return to his original position of outside centre allows the exciting Tongan counter-attacker Telusa Veainu a run at full-back.