Six of the backs who could make little impression on Gloucester on Sunday turn out again for London Wasps this evening as the race for the Guinness Premiership play-offs becomes ever tighter. Wasps should have played away to Newcastle Falcons on February 29 but were frozen out; they will not want the same situation, however metaphorical, to occur now.

Victory tonight would lift Wasps to third in the table with one round remaining and, they will hope, a win over Leeds Carnegie, who are already consigned to relegation, on Saturday. But they will be wary of a Newcastle side lifted by Sunday’s win over Leicester and invariably harder to beat at Kingston Park than on their travels.

There is no Jonny Wilkinson in Newcastle’s ranks to face his successor as England’s fly half, Danny Cipriani. It is possible that Wilkinson has played his last match of the season. He is due for a shoulder operation and, with Steve Jones available, there is no need for him to be involved.

Cipriani struggled with a chest infection during the defeat by Gloucester but Wasps have rejigged their backs by omitting Tom Voyce, moving Josh Lewsey to wing and Riki Flutey to full back. That brings in the rapidly maturing Dominic Waldouck at centre.

Richard Hill, England’s World Cup-winning flanker who retires this summer, plays his final game for Saracens against Bristol at his club’s temporary base in Milton Keynes on Saturday.

Magnus Lund, the Sale Sharks and England flanker, will join Biarritz at the end of the season, ending rumours that he was to take a break from top-class rugby to rest his body.