BRAD Shields is “excited” ahead of Wasps return to league action against Gloucester under the lights on Friday night at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Wasps suffered consecutive defeats in the two-week cup window – losing to both Newcastle Falcons and Leicester Tigers – with Backs Transition Coach Scott Barrow taking charge of the fixtures.
Head Coach Lee Blackett returns to coaching duties for Wasps clash with Gloucester on Friday night with several senior players also set to take to the pitch for the first time in over three weeks.
And stand-in skipper Brad Shields is excited ahead of his side’s return to league action at the CBS Arena tomorrow night.
Shields said: “We can’t wait – it’s our first Friday night game – we’re excited and it’s been a relatively short week because the guys played on Saturday, we had an altered training week to make sure we’re firing for Friday.
“Excitement is the key word we’ve been using – Friday night lights, you can’t beat it!
“We want to put another statement down and play some really good rugby – Gloucester have been great, especially up front, it’s going to be a huge battle there.
“We’ve had a couple of weeks of not playing so we should be fresh and excited to get into it.”
Wasps find themselves in 10th place after enduring a difficult start to the campaign and Shields feels his side’s execution has let them down at times this season.
Shields added: “Frustrating is a pretty good word to sum it up – we’re giving ourselves plenty of opportunities and putting ourselves in really good positions to win games.
“We’ve let the foot off the throat a couple of times against good teams and you pay for it – we’re confident in what we do, we’re confident in our gameplan and we’re confident in our process.
“It comes down to execution and when it gets tight in a game we need to stick to our process and trust that we’re doing the right thing rather than trying to overplay or force a mistake.
“Everyone’s pretty keen to get back on the horse, get a good win and put a good performance in.”
The England international sat out the two Premiership Rugby Cup games over the last fortnight and was impressed by Wasps’ young stars of the future.
He said: “I was gutted for the boys that have played the last couple of weeks not to get a win – especially against Newcastle – they played pretty well and prepared really well.
“There’s always young talent coming through – it’s just trying to channel that and get the best out of the young guys – playing rugby is the most important thing to get better.
“I’m excited – we’ve got good depth and we’ve got good young guys coming through.”
Wasps game with Gloucester takes place on Friday, November 26 with kick-off at 7:45pm at the CBS Arena.
