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Wentzel looks forward to Tigers return

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London Wasps skipper Marco Wentzel has urged his side to come out fighting as he makes his return to Welford Road on Saturday.

Wentzel, who played 44 times in two years with Tigers up to the summer of 2009, was handed the captain’s role at Wasps after injury to John Hart earlier this season and he says his side have to stand up and be counted this weekend.

“As a group of players we said last weekend that only we can make things right,” Wentzel said following home defeat by Worcester Warriors in Round 11.

“We had a choice to make – stand up and fight or run away – and we are united that we want to fight to improve our season. Personally I don’t think there is any place better to go than to Leicester to try and do that.

“They are a great team and are always tough, but we are very positive this week. Going to Welford Road no one expects us to do anything and it would be a great place to get the season back on track.

“We need to go there and make it as tough as possible for them and take any chances that come our way.”

Wentzel says he always enjoyed playing at Welford Road before moving on to Leeds and then Wasps.

“They will get a big crowd and there’ll be a good atmosphere,” he said. “We want to make our fans proud of us and it is well within our ability to do that. I am very much looking forward to the game.”

Wasps director of rugby Dai Young has backed his side to make major improvements after successive league defeats by Gloucester and Worcester.

“The performance against Worcester was disappointing in the sense that we had enough ball to win and we just didn’t do anything constructive with it,” Young said.

“The rest of our game was solid – we won penalties from the scrum, the line-out functioned well and our defence stood up very well. When you have all of those aspects in your favour you expect to win a game.

“What we have been struggling with is. When we go to Leicester this weekend we won’t get anywhere near the same amount of possession we had last weekend so we’re going to have to sharpen up pretty quickly on finishing opportunities. We know we can do it because we’ve done it very well at times this season, we just have to get on and keep working at it.”

Tickets for Saturday's game are available now from the Tigers ticket office.