Paul Sackey starts on the wing for Wasps © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

Matches: Wasps 18 - 13 Racing Metro

Players/Officials: Sebastien Chabal | Danny Cipriani | Tom Rees | Dan Scarbrough

Tournaments/Tours: European Challenge Cup

Teams: England | France | Racing Metro | Wasps

Wasps' opening European Challenge Cup game will have quite a cast-list as they welcome free-spending Top 14 outfit Racing-Metro 92 to Adams Park on Sunday.

Having won the tournament in 2003 and the Heineken Cup twice Wasps are one of the early favourites for the title, and with it a place in Europe's premier competition next season. Their efforts have been dealt a blow with news of long-term injuries to skipper Tom Rees and fly-half Danny Cipriani however.

Rees has undergone further shoulder surgery and will be out for four months while Cipriani has a hairline fracture of his right fibula and will miss six weeks of action. As a result, Dave Walder wears No.10 and Lachlan Mitchell, fresh from knocking himself unconscious with a last-ditch tackle against Northampton, starts at fullback.

In the pack, Phil Vickery wears the captain's armband and leads a grizzled eight in to the game. Serge Betsen, Dan Ward-Smith and John Hart are the back-row options, with George Skivington and Dan Leo packing down in the second-row.

Racing are shorn of two important players due to injury, with both Andrew Mehrtens and Sebastien Chabal sidelined. Chabal's place at No.8 is taken by Rémy Vaquin, while Jonathan Wisniewski wears No.10.

Springbok Francois Steyn gets his first taste of European competition in the centre, alongside Brent Ward. There will be a familiar face for the Wasps fans as former Saracens flyer Dan Scarbrough starts at fullback.

Wasps: Lachlan Mitchell, Paul Sackey, Dominic Waldouck, Steve Kefu, Tom Varndell, Dave Walder, Joe Simpson, Tim Payne, Tom Lindsay, Phil Vickery (capt), George Skivington, Dan Leo, Dan Ward-Smith, Serge Betsen, John Hart

Replacements: Joe Ward, Gabriel Bocca, Ben Broster, Richard Birkett, Will Matthews, Warren Fury, Eoghan Hickey, Ben Jacobs

Racing Metro 92: Daniel Scarbrough, Sireli Bobo, Brent Ward, François Steyn, Mani Vakaloa, Jonathan Wisniewski, Mathieu Lorée, Craig Smith, Carlo Festuccia, Mehdi Mérabet, Jone Qovu ,Simon Raiwalui (C), Ashley Clark, Nathan Lane, Rémy Vaquin

Replacements: Olivier Diomandé, Clément Baïocco, Epi Taione, John Leo'o, Nic Berry, Jérôme Fillol, Julien Saubade, Juan-Pablo Orlandi