TONIGHT'S game in Newcastle will mark the end of Craig Dowd's seven-year Wasps career, but after watching his team provide the perfect Adams Park send-off last week he is expecting a fierce farewell from the Falcons.

He said: "You couldn't have scripted it last week. I hate losing and it would have gutted me if we'd lost, but we know we've got another real battle against Newcastle.

"They're no longer a soft pack. Carl Hayman has been a huge signing and they've got a real hard streak to them. I rate their driven line-out as one of the best in the Premiership.

"They were no easy beats when they came down here, but they're considerably improved now."

And that's ignoring the return of Jonny Wilkinson, Jamie Noon, Matthew Tait and Toby Flood Wasps will be without the injured James Haskell, right, but if they do win, Dowd is looking forward to a hectic journey back down the motorway.

He said: "The boys have three days off so a five-hour bus trip in the early hours of the morning would be a great trip home.

"Wasps has been a huge part of my life and my career.

"There's that saying, once a Wasp always a Wasp and I hold that so true."