With Wasps having won only four of the past 15 Premiership meetings between them and the Exeter Chiefs and back Kurtley Beale being ruled out of the Premiership final at Twickenham, the Wallaby’s absence may prove pivotal in the outcome of what is already a tight match to call.
The Chiefs make one change to the starting XV which overcame Saracens, with wing Olly Woodburn replacing top try-scorer James Short, whilst Willie Le Roux switches to full-back, with Josh Bassett starting on the wing.
Despite their knock-back, though, Wasps Director of Rugby Dai Young said: "We have a lot of respect for Exeter Chiefs, who are a quality team and a quality club. We've had some memorable battles over the past couple of seasons and know how well drilled and coached they are, so we will have to be at our absolute best to win.
Exeter Head Coach Rob Baxter said: "We're probably a stronger group going into this game than we were last week, which is always nice. But we've got to make sure that we don't expect that having a bit of experience from last year will be that big a factor. We've got to demand that what the big factor is, is the quality we play at."
Wasps finished Aviva Premiership in 1st place, with Exeter finishing 2nd but in 14 past Premiership finals, the league winners have only gone on to win at Twickenham five times (Sale 2006, Leicester 2009 and 2010, Harlequins 2012, and Saracens 2016) – which makes this one very hard to call.
