Wasps on warpath
Wales lock Bradley Davies claims the Wasps players haven't forgotten the way the Chiefs picked up a bonus-point win at the Ricoh Arena in the Premiership on December 5, outscoring their hosts by six tries to three in a 41-27 triumph.
That defeat obviously hurt Wasps, who are two points behind the Chiefs in third place in the table, because Davies hasn't forgotten what happened in that game – especially the fact that Chiefs No.8 Thomas Waldrom bagged a hat-trick of tries.
"Having our backsides kicked at home to Exeter was not something we enjoyed very much and it's something we will be looking to put right," said Davies.
"They did a number on us with the driving line-out and, to be fair to them, they've probably got one of the best driving line-outs in Europe at the moment. Every team in Europe is copying what they are doing.
"They scored four tries from driving line-outs against us, but at one stage it was 30-30.
"That goes to show how good our attack is and with the way we play you know, as a forward, that if you do your job then the boys will take chances and score tries.
"It's going to be a big occasion, a sell-out, with the carrot at the end of it being a European semi-final against another English team."
If they can get past the Chiefs, who will be making their debut at this level in Europe, then it leaves either Saracens or Northampton Saints in the way of a possible third European Cup Final for the champions of 2004 and 2007.
Wasps warmed-up for their quarterfinal by beating Saints 28-6 at the Ricoh Arena at the weekend.
"We're looking very good at the moment," said Davies.
"Over the Christmas period we picked up some great wins against Saracens away, Bath away and then we had a big win against Leicester.
"In the league you can have one win and go into the top three or one loss and drop to eighth.
"In Europe, we're looking at it as being three games away from winning the Champions Cup. On our day we know we can beat anyone.
"We played Toulon in the quarterfinals last season and they did a number on us, but this year we came away with a five-point bonus win at home. Then we went out there and they won it with the last play of the game.
"I remember Dai saying in the meeting that it was now time for us to believe in ourselves because we should have won that game. The boys have taken that in and not many teams go to Saracens and put 60 points on them.
"The only thing that sometimes lets us down is that we lack concentration in some away games."
There doesn't seem to be much likelihood of that happening against the Chiefs.
Wasps are set to be the ones on the war path after what happened last time!
Source: @ChampionsCup
