Leicester Tigers and Wasps go into the final game of the season at the Ricoh Arena on Saturday separated by a single point in the Gallagher Premiership table.
Tigers head into the weekend – when all fixtures kick off simultaneously at 3.00pm on Saturday – in sixth place on 49 points, one place and one point ahead of their Round 22 rivals.
They top a group of tightly-packed teams behind the top five, with 10th-placed Newcastle on 44 points, setting up an interesting finale weekend.
Tigers centre Matt Scott, looking ahead to the trip to the Ricoh Arena, said: “Wasps are an extremely dangerous side with dangerous individual runners if you give them any time and space. They have been involved in a lot of high-scoring games recently.
“We’ve been trying to have a full 80-minute performance, we don’t want to give teams any easy points and I think you have seen the resilience of the Tigers now. We don’t panic and can work our way back into a game and stick to our gameplan.”
Wasps have won four and lost four in their last eight league games, while Leicester have a similar even split over their last six matches in all competitions.
Tigers have won twice away from home in Premiership rugby this season, at Gloucester in Round 13 and at Worcester in Round 20, but have not won successive away games in the tournament since May 2018.
The last seven meetings between the two clubs in the league have all gone the way of home advantage and Tigers have won just once in eight attempts at the Ricoh Arena – on their first visit in May 2015.
They did, though, take the honours in the opening meeting of this season, winning 27-8 at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in February with tries from Jasper Wiese, Tommy Reffell and Julían Montoya in a game which also featured three red cards.
Argentina international Montoya returns from injury to make his first starting appearance since that encounter in Round 10, with front-row colleague Ellis Genge given the captaincy this weekend by head coach Steve Borthwick.
Wasps have made five changes to the line-up that won against London Irish last time out, including the return of Malakai Fekitoa in the centres. Josh Bassett will make his 150th club appearance and Jacob Umaga reaches his 50th. The front-row trio of Simon McIntyre, Tommy Taylor and Kieran Brookes all make their final appearances in Wasps colours.
Overall the two sides have met on 107 previous occasions with Tigers winning 63, Wasps 39 and five games drawn.
Referee is Luke Pearce, this season’s Heineken Cup Final official, in charge of a Premiership fixture for the 115th time.
Tigers will wear the club’s blue change kit as the Ricoh re-opens its doors for the first time since March 2020.
The stadium will be operating under strict COVID-19 regulations to ensure a safe and secure environment for all supporters attending with one-way systems, allocated entry times, social distancing policies and increased sanitisation and cleaning. There will be no tickets on sale on the day of the game.
Wasps versus Tigers is being covered live on BT Sport 1HD from 2.30pm.
You can also keep in touch with the club’s Matchday Live Service from wherever you are this weekend and vote for your Fans’ Favourite using the Tigers App. Make sure you’ve downloaded the most recent app update (Apple 2.11.0 or Android 36) to receive all of the latest news and info ahead of every matchday.
Round 22 fixtures
Bath Rugby v Northampton Saints, Bristol Bears v London Irish, Exeter Chiefs v Sale Sharks, Harlequins v Newcastle Falcons, Wasps v Leicester Tigers, Worcester Warriors v Gloucester Rugby (cancelled).
