WASPS players will warm up for Leeds on Sunday by watching an ex-team-mate in the Winter Olympics tonight.

Henry Nwume was part of the Wasps squad which won the Heineken Cup and Guinness Premiership five years ago, but tonight he competes for Great Britain in the four-man Bobsleigh.

Wasps lock Richard Birkett played alongside Nwume back in the day.

He said: “He’s definitely built for it, he’s so powerful.

“He’s a huge man, I mean huge. I remember he used to do massive weights, deadlifting 200kgs plus, much bigger than I’d ever dream of doing.

“Ali Mckenzie and Peter Bracken used to love to deadlift too, but Henry dominated.

“I’ve never seen anyone so muscley and he was fast as well so bobsleigh is perfect for him.

“I think it’s awesome.

“But he is super smart and always needed a challenge. He worked as an army doctor for a while after leaving us and now he’s doing this.

“Fair play to him, you’ve got to have some cajones to do it and I’ll definitely be watching.”

Nwume certainly has an eclectic history.

An Oxford Blue before joining Wasps, Nwume left the club to join the 2nd Battalion Mercian Regiment on a six-month tour of Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Less than a week before he was due to return to England his patrol was ambushed with two soldiers killed and another eight wounded.

He said: “The Afghanistan tour was a very important part of my life and I’m very glad I was able to go and feel privileged to have experienced that situation with those people.

“I was prepared to go back out there, but it’s not a nice place.

“Now I can focus on the task in hand – the bobsleigh.”