Leicester and Wasps rely on heavy brigade

Brian Ashton, the beleaguered England coach, is not planning to attend this afternoon's EDF Energy Cup semi-finals at the Millennium Stadium – after the despicable way he has been treated by his employers at Twickenham this week, he must be wondering whether he wants to see a rugby ball ever again – but many more men of the moment will be in Cardiff for the annual back-to-back bun fight. Danny Cipriani, Lawrence Dallaglio, Eddie Jones, Shaun Edwards, the lion's share of the Welsh side that won the Grand Slam seven days ago: it is quite a cast, to say the least.

When the four qualifiers emerged from the last round of pool matches in early December, the Ospreys-Saracens tie was the one that caught the imagination. Here was a good old-fashioned Anglo-Welsh dust-up in prospect, featuring the swankiest side in the Principality and one of the form teams in the Guinness Premiership. Saracens have let things slip since then, losing six of their last 10 league matches, but the Ospreys are still the talk of many a town, boasting as they do nine of the Wales starting line-up against France last weekend.

Yet the Leicester-Wasps tie has grown in stature and significance since January, when the two heavyweights were dumped out of the Heineken Cup – the No 1 target for both. Neither club consider it acceptable to go through a season without winning at least one trophy (last time out, they shared the three principal titles between them) and as the destination of the Premiership crown is anyone's guess, the need for success in this tournament has taken on a new urgency.

Hence the big-hitting selections by Marcelo Loffreda, enduring a bumpy ride in his first few months as Leicester's head coach, and Ian McGeechan, the director of rugby at Wasps and everyone's favourite to lead the British and Irish Lions' assault on Springbok country 15 months from now. Loffreda feels he can afford to leave forwards as effective as Marcos Ayerza, Benjamin Kayser, Julian White and Jordan Crane on the bench, while McGeechan is in the happy position of being able to drop Dave Walder, his match-winning outside-half at London Irish last Sunday, for the returning Cipriani.

He cannot call on two England flankers, however. Both Joe Worsley and Tom Rees are unfit, and while another full international, James Haskell, can do a turn on the open-side flank and the uncapped John Hart rarely lets the side down, it is not quite the back-row balance the Londoners would have chosen. If Ben Herring, a hard-working breakaway specialist in the grand tradition of his native New Zealand, dominates the tackle area, Wasps could easily come unstuck.

There again, they are a resourceful bunch, and the thought of knocking out the holders and making them sweat on Premiership victory for the rest of the campaign would amuse them greatly. "You expect the opposition to raise the bar when you reach the knock-out stage of a competition and Leicester will be no exception," McGeechan said yesterday. "Of course, it requires us to do the same, but I think the history of big games between the two sides shows we bring the best out of each other. This is the biggest challenge we've faced this season."

The Premiership being as tight as it is – no one seriously doubts that the contest for a play-off slot will continue until the last round of matches in May – the two fixtures this weekend are of considerable importance. Bath could put paid to London Irish's hopes of making the cut by winning at the Recreation Ground this afternoon, while Harlequins, enjoying something of a resurgence after a flat spell either side of Christmas, will go fourth if they see off Bristol at the Memorial Ground tomorrow.

Precious few expected Quins to challenge this hard for this long but, as Ashton might say, it has been one of those seasons.