Nick Abendanon Joe Maddock and Chris Malone start the game while Shaun Berne

Nick Abendanon, Joe Maddock and Chris Malone start the game, while Shaun Berne relocates to outside centre.If Leicester shut out this latest combination, the return to fitness of the Samoan centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu will be the most urgent item on the Recreation Ground agenda.Premiership team news* BATH v LEICESTER(Today, 2.15pm)Chris Malone is at fly-half for Bath and Shaun Berne moves to outside centre Nick Abendanon replaces Michael Stephenson at full-back. We then made three simple mistakes, gave away two penalties and lost the match.”Quins have some pace behind the scrum; indeed, the likes of Tom Williams and David Strettle, both promoted to the starting line-up, are every bit as rapid as their Gloucester opponents. As Dean Richards, the director of rugby at Quins, said in respect of his side’s opening-day defeat by London Irish: “It was a game we could have won, maybe should have won With five minutes to go, we were two points up. As Meehan said last Saturday: “We heard one thing from Twickenham at the start of the week, and another from the referee 20 minutes before kick-off. We need to know where we stand.” Few coaches expect to be blessed with such knowledge any time soon.We will know more about Harlequins come tea-time today, that’s for sure. The Londoners play their first home game since returning to the ?te league against Gloucester, who deserved their victory over Bath last weekend, irrespective of the rights and wrongs at the set-piece.

Twenty-four hours later, his opposite number at Sale, Philippe Saint-Andre, could be heard muttering along similar lines. Alan Gaffney of Saracens had an issue or two at Twickenham; John Brain of Worcester has been struggling to make sense of the situation for a month.Front-row forwards always indulge in a little chicanery It would be rude of them not to. The trouble at the moment is that the All Blacks, using what the technicians call the threequarter crouch and the rolling hit, do it better than anyone and have reaped substantial rewards as a result.At the annual referees’ workshop a few weekends ago, Phil Keith-Roach, the architect of England’s World Cup-winning scrum, gave a brilliant presentation, explaining how the New Zealanders have achieved a 40 per cent advantage over their opponents by perfecting the art of engaging on their own terms, rather than those laid down by the man charged with running the show.The referees have thus been made aware of the All Blacks’ dodgy tactics, which are now in common usage around the Premiership, and are of a mind to make a stand Unfortunately, they have yet to arrive at a common approach. Those rugby aficionados with a taste for all-in wrestling should be in for a high old time this weekend, when a couple of human bench-press machines – David Flatman of Bath and Julian White of Leicester – meet at the Recreation Ground. At more or less the same time, England’s first-choice loose-head prop, Andrew Sheridan of Sale, will be pitting whatever wits a front-row troglodyte can be said to possess against Northampton’s much talked-about Pat Barnard, a bolter for next year’s World Cup squad If only it were possible to be in two places at once. There again, these individual conflicts may be whistled into oblivion by the refereeing fraternity. Why? Because the scrum – or rather, the scrum engagement – is a mess.
If the opening round of the Premiership was anything to go by, it will get messier still.

Steve Meehan, the Bath coach, was less than entertained by the refereeing of the set-piece at Kingsholm a week ago. London Irish: Tries Ojo; Penalties Flutey 4.Wasps: T Voyce; P Sackey, A Erinle, R Hoadley, J Lewsey; A King (J Staunton, 61), S Amor (E Reddan, 51); T Payne, J Ward (R Ibanez, 66), P Bracken, M Purdy (T Rees, 77), T Palmer, D Leo, J Worsley, J Hart (capt).London Irish: D Armitage; T Ojo, D Feaunati (M Horak, 77), S Geraghty (M Horak, 33-37), S Tagicakibau; R Flutey, P Hodgson; T Lea’aetoa (N Hatley, 52), D Coetzee (R Russell, 52), R Skuses (D Fitter, h-t), N Kennedy, B Casey (capt, J Hudson, 52), K Roche, D Danaher (R Russell 16-22), J Leguizamon (P Murphy, h-t).Referee: S Davey (RFU).. He was chasing kicks and you’ve got to have both those styles in your armoury.” Just over 7,000 fans, of London teams, travelled beyond the confines of their Oyster Cards, to see Jeremy Staunton, on as a replacement for Alex King, drop the goal after 73 minutes that finished the Irish off. It represented a triumph for Wasps, who have now won the first two games of the season for the first time in a decade.For Irish Riki Flutey, last weekend’s hero at Twickenham, was a pain throughout and when he kicked his fourth penalty goal of the night he secured Irish a losing bonus point, although it could have been much more.However, it was not enough to sort out a Wasps side who had the lion’s share of the ball and allowed Alex King the chance to nail three first-half penalties and give the hosts a lead they would never relinquish.Wasps: Tries Lewsey; Penalties King 4, Staunton; Drop goal Staunton. Last week’s win was achieved when Wasps took the hard-nosed option, closed the game down and left Lewsey out with the fairies.Wasps’ coach Shaun Edwards said: “He felt a bit out of it last week.

That gave Wasps a 14-8 lead they would never relinquish, despite the trickery of the Irish fly-half Riki Flutey, who kept the Exiles in touch with his boot.
Lewsey was not picked for the England tour of Australia so he took the easy option, and climbed K2 instead and some may say that the national team’s attempt to get back to the top of world rugby is a challenge of similar altitude. It bore dividends last night as he scored the crucial try, chipping Topsy Ojo, and gathering his own kick to touch down just before the break. The World Cup winner, ex-soldier and adventurer, was so disgusted with his lack of action during Wasps’ game against Saracens at Twickenham that instead of heading down to Richmond for a beer like the other 50,000 souls in the ground he punished himself with a private training session at HQ. Josh Lewsey did not take his inactivity last weekend too graciously. Drahm made it 6-3 with a second penalty before Marcel Garvey exploded away from the Newcastle defence for a try which Drahm converted to make it 13-3.

This became 16-3 when Drahm took a penalty in front of the posts.Within minutes of the restart, Wilkinson was helped away from the pitch May, though, lifted Newcastle’s spirits with a try Robbie Morris got a second touchdown which Flood converted. Then, at the death, Visser ran in the try which earned Newcastle their single-point victory.Newcastle: Tries May, Morris, Visser; Conversion Flood; Penalty Wilkinson. Worcester: Try Garvey; Conversion Drahm; Penalties Drahm 4.Newcastle: M Burke; T May, J Noon, T Flood, O Phillips (J Shaw, h-t); J Wilkinson (T Visser, 46), J Grindal (H Charlton, 57); M Ward, D Thompson (A Long, 49), R Morris (D Wilson, h-t), A Perry, A Buist, B Wilson (M McCarthy, h-t), C Harris, P Dowson.Worcester: L Best; T Delport, T Lombard, S Whatling (M Avramovic, 60), M Garvey; S Drahm, M Powell; D Morris, C Fortey (B Gotting, 56), T Tuamoepeau (C Horsman, 43), C Gillies, P Murphy (R Blaze, 75), P Sanderson, T Harding, D Hickey (K Horstmann, 50).Referee: A Spreadbury (Somerset).. Fletcher, though, felt his side had done well to go down by just two points at Northampton.Shane Drahm opened the scoring with a penalty from 45 metres, before Wilkinson tied the scores with one of his own.