Wasps can take complete control of this group if they win a second away game and Munster fail to beat Llanelli. Lose by more than seven points, and the pendulum swings back towards ASM, and probably Munster too.

Team news: Wasps slick three-quarters found the driving wind, rain and hailstones not to their liking last weekend. Conditions in France should be more benign, but ASM's defence will be harder to breach than Newcastle's!

Continuity of possession and position gives us an edge. Ian McGeechan names a starting 15 with only one change: the reintroduction of French captain Raphael Ibanez, who ought to know about Montferrandian hospitality.

Lawrence Dallaglio and Simon Shaw will join an elite band of European Cup half-centurions, something that only one Wasp has done before -- our old friend and now an Auvergnaut, Alex King, benches against us.

Kinga is not the first fly-half to move to a rival team but he is no Judas. He always tries to do the decent thing which, on this occasion, will mean plotting Wasps downfall, and entertaining friends beforehand and afterwards, whatever the result.

Fly-half King said: "I am sure Wasps will know my game inside out, and it is going to be strange preparing to play against them. But Clermont is my team now, and there won't be any divided loyalties.

"I have been having some banter with (Wasps captain) Lawrence Dallaglio on the phone, and it should be a very special game. The essence of Wasps is all down to the strong work ethic at the club. It is, quite simply, phenomenal.

"I had an amazing 11 years at Wasps, and I just felt there was no better way to end my career with the club than by winning the Heineken Cup in front of 81,000 spectators at Twickenham. That was the way to bow out!"

Director of Rugby Ian McGeechan said, 'We know that coming to Clermont represents one of the biggest challenges any team can have. They have an outstanding home record and we are going to have to put in an outstanding performance to get anything from this game.

'We have made few changes to the line up as it's very important to us that we keep our momentum going for this game.'

The ASM captain is none other than Aurélien Rougerie, who resorted to jurisprudence following an incident with Phil Greening. Vespasian thinks that action should "ensure" a vigorous Wasp display come Saturday. Wasps by 5.

London Wasps: 15 Mark Van Gisbergen; 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Fraser Waters, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Tom Voyce; 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Eoin Reddan; 1 Tim Payne, 2 Raphael Ibanez, 3 Phil Vickery, 4 Simon Shaw, 5 George Skivington, 6 John Hart, 7 James Haskell, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio (Capt.)

Bench: 16 Rob Webber, 17 Nick Adams, 18 Richard Birkett, 19 Dan Leo, 20 Simon Amor, 21 Josh Lewsey, 22 Tom Rees

ASM Clermont Auvergne:

15 Anthony Floch; 14 Aurélien Rougerie (Capt.), 13 Marius Joubert, 12 Gonzalo Canale, 11 Julien Malziue; 10 Brock James, 9 Pierre Mignoni; 1 Laurent Emmanuelli, 2 Mario Ledesma, 3 Martin Scelzo, 4 Jamie Cudmore, 5 Thibaut Privat, 6 Julien Bonnaire 7 Sam Broomhall, 8 Elvis Vermeulen

Bench: 16 Mirko Lozupone, 17 Thomas Domingo, 18 Christophe Samson, 19 Alexandre Audebert, 20 John Senio, 21 Alex King, 22 Benoit Baby

Referee: Alan Lewis

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