The size of the task facing London Irish tomorrow was underlined when London Wasps Director of Rugby Ian McGeechan named 17 of the players who featured in Wasps Guinness Premiership final outing to face Toby Booth’s men, then declared his side will be gunning for the treble this season.

Littered with 11 England and England Saxons squad members, as well Irish International Eoin Reddan, Wasps travel to Twickenham still waiting for the likes of new signings Serge Betsen and Mark Robinson unavailable for selection plus long term injury victims Danny Cipriani and Dave Walder.

McGeechan said: “Returning to Twickenham we are of course reminded of a fantastic finish to last season, but our focus on Saturday will be solely based on the task ahead. The appointment of new captain Raphael Ibanez marks the beginning of a new era for the club and our challenge will be to maintain the standard on display at the close of last season.

“As ever we will be searching for honours in all three competitions and a good start to the season will be crucial to our campaign, especially as we anticipate such a depletion of our squad through the international period.

”We have undergone a successful pre-season campaign with three tough games against solid opponents, which has offered the full squad valuable game time ahead of the challenge of a new season.  In London Irish we face a well organized and inventive opponent which means we are going to have to produce a top performance. We know we have a highly competitive game ahead of us and for both sides and those watching from the stands, it should be a great opening to the Guinness Premiership.”