Wasps RFC captain James Haskell ready to 'meet fight fire...

...with fire' in landmark game against Leicester Tigers.

A huge game against one of your oldest rivals in front of a record-breaking crowd – Wasps skipper James Haskell could hardly have hand-picked a more fitting fixture for his 150th appearance in black and gold.

As Wasps chief Dai Young said: “These are the types of occasions and stages he thrives on – the kind you play rugby for.”

And Haskell, who made his debut as an 18-year-old against Harlequins in 2003, is certainly relishing the milestone after a career that has also included 58 England Tests as well as spells in France (with Stade Francais), Japan (fittingly enough, Ricoh Black Bulls) and New Zealand (Highlanders).

“Getting 150 appearances for any team is fantastic,” he said. “For the length of time I’ve been in the game it almost feels like I should have more, but I obviously had that period in the middle where I went off around the world and played elsewhere.

“It’s great to be back here in a side that is really going places, playing with some great players, a great coaching staff about to play in front of 32,000 people at the Ricoh Arena.

“I’m the last man standing from all that time apart from Malcolm Sinclair, the kit man, and even he’s retiring at the end of the season I think

“The club has dramatically changed since I first started; it’s a whole new group of people and we’re now playing our home games up in Coventry so a lot has changed since I first started out.

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