A win at Wasps

Victory
By kwin
May 12 2003

A spirited Quins team staged an exhilarating 30 minutes of rugby at Adams Park fighting back from 18-8 behind to defeat the in-form club of the Premiership. Wasps 21 - Harlequins 25

Our second away win in just six weeks (they’re like busses…) secured us seventh place in the ZP, a rare ‘double’ over Wasps (making us the only team that they haven’t managed to beat this season) and a berth in the flawed Zurich Wildcard competition.

Settling into our seats in the pleasant, but rather antiseptic stadium (built with organic materials to British Standard BS129394 (Mixed-use Stadia for Medium Size Conurbation) I pretended to read the programme and listened to the chatter. There were plenty of Magenta-Shirted Quins fans around, but it was the Waspies I listened to and I soon realised it hadn’t crossed the minds of the Wasps fan around us that they could lose. The chirruping and chirpy MWTM was of the same view – with his jokey references to supporting Saracens to beat Sale ‘just in case’ Wasps came a cropper, he was almost smug. Wasps had won 11 games on the bounce, and they all knew Quins couldn’t win away (London Irish don’t count for clubs like Wasps). It seemed they only really needed to play their normal game and we were toast. It was surprising that Dallaglio was playing really, being over his maximum games limit. “It’s just a shame the sun’s not really shining!” said a Waspie behind us.

I began to feel very encouraged.

As Quins ran out they played ‘Any dream will do’ (from Joseph and his Technicolour Dream Coat, geddit?). I daresay we deserve it. Then the crowd roared as on to field ran 15 tiny mascots, leading out a grim-faced Dayglo.

The first half wasn’t pretty. Wasps started strongly and Quins were put under immense pressure, and seemed we spent the first twenty minutes on the back foot. With their heavier and more experienced pack Wasps dominated the loose play up front, although in the set piece we held our own, with Dawson looking very much the part. Quins nicked an early lead after six minutes with a Burke penalty, but other than that it was Wasps!, Wasps! Wasps! who enjoyed most of the possession and all of the territory. Our game plan in seemed to revolve around either keeping it tight, which played to Wasps’ strengths, or long kicks, which more often than not seemed to go direct to Lewsey or Van Gisbergen, both of whom looked dangerous countering.

Either way we spent far too much time in our own half, relying on a tightly organised defence, heroic tackling (Dean, Diprose, Williams) and sheer old-fashioned muscle to deny a series of scoring chances. Twice Wasps were held up over the line, but on more than one occasion we were the grateful recipients of Wasps errors and fumbles. Gifted possession when we were, though, we still had a massive problem clearing our line. At one stage I counted three successive missed touch kicks from Burky, with Van Gisbergen the beneficiary each time.

It couldn’t last, and after 23 minutes Wasps finally pushed Craig Dowd over for a try following a quickly-taken penalty. 7:3, but if anything this seemed to galvanise the Quins squad, and gradually we started to come back into the game with some penetrating runs and half breaks from Luger, who made more impact this week, and from the always-impressive Deane.

Hayter, in a solid debut, added his name to the tackle sheet by upending Volley, but Wasps at this stage were still very much in charge and at 37 minutes Bell (who looked a uncomfortable for much of the afternoon opposite Fraser Waters) disrupted a promising Wasps attack, illegally preventing release and was sin-binned. King hit the mark from the penalty and we were 10-3 down with 40 mins played.

King (Binky)

However the half was not yet over. From a Quins’ line-out on half way the ball came recycled smoothly to Burke who lofted an inch-perfect cross field kick to young Ugo Monye waiting on the right wing. Monye leapt and caught smoothly, but with both Logan and Van Gisbergen in close attendance it was half-a-chance at most. But Ugo didn’t see it like that. He halted, darted, paused, and took off for the corner - displaying a neat sidestep and dance to go with the burning speed he’s famous for. Conversion missed, but Quins fans weren’t in the least bit disappointed to turn around 10-8 down at half-time.

But if the first half ended well, the second half started badly. A missed touch kick from Paul Burke (another one!) fell directly to Waters who took on Monye and easily beat him, before offloading to Logan for a simple try.

It could have been the turning point, but instead of the heads-dropped resignation we’ve seen in some games, Quins seemed to take it personally and suddenly the game was on fire. A kick from Bell was charged down by Volley to put us under pressure yet again, but Winters saved the day with a crunching tackle on Greening. Quins won a scrum, but the ball popped out catching Powell, who I thought had a poor game overall, not paying attention, and the pace of the game stepped up a notch. Then with 30 minutes to go, came the turning point as Evs brought on Fuga and Evans with fire in their bellies and freshness in their legs.

Within moments Evans had made a carry and then on 56 minutes a smoothly delayed pass to sent Fuga on the burst through the Wasps line, with just the full back to beat. Fuga doesn’t make mistakes in these situations any more, and straightforwardly employed his Samoan sidestep to take out the defender, neatly offloading to Powell on his shoulder to score. 18:15 and we were right back in it.

Sanderson came on in place of Diprose and immediately made his presence felt with an impressive break that must have been all of 30m. From the breakdown the ball was fed out quickly to Monye who was just inches short of the space he needed. The backs were motoring now though, and the ball went left to Luger, also denied, but this created the space needed, and Burkey floated another fine kick back to waiting Monye for his second try. Despite the air-horn that accompanied all his kicks that afternoon (no, it’s not just at Gloucester) Burkey made no mistake with the conversion. It was 18-22. We were ahead again, with 15 minutes to play. It suddenly seemed to dawn on the Wasps team – and the crowd around us – that Wasps actually might lose this game!

A penalty to Wasps made it 21-22, and they were in every chance. They attacked furiously but a succession of errors from the panicking backs, including some fine running into space from their own version of Harvey, enabled us to beat back to their half, and a fine a drop goal from Burke lengthened the lead again. Wasps threw everything at us in the last ten minutes but they were unable to score again, and Quins were safely home with just our second away win of the season. The Dixie-Walk back to the car was a good 25 minutes, but we grinned from ear to ear!

An excellent and entertaining game of rugby, and some very promising performances from the younger players. When I saw the team sheet earlier in the week I have to admit that I was doubtful, but I’m more than happy to hands-up now and eat my hat. True, the inexperience was occasionally apparent (for instance the swiftly taken mark, just behind the oblivious Monye’s back), but what they lacked in experience, they more than made up for in confidence and attitude: There are not many teams that have won at Adams Park this season, and few that have beaten Wasps after being 10 points behind. It was a credit to us that we managed both.  Monye had a debut he’ll remember for some time, Dawson was just outstanding in the scrum, and Rudzki, Evans and Miall demonstrated conclusively that you don’t need Alex Codling in order to steal the odd lineout.

Greening throws high... (Binky)

Amongst the experienced players Burke had a very solid game, on more than one occasion resembling David Seaman as he strove to gather Powell’s wayward passes, and while Sanderson looked a tad rusty from his long lay off, it was a pleasure to see him on the pitch again, and his trademark bullocking runs, intensive tackling, and mobility was just enough, I thought, to give him a start on Wednesday.

Wednesday! It’s our first venture into any sort of play-off, and with the worthwhile prize of a Heineken cup place to play for. In our semi-final we face Leicester and it's wide open. The winners will go on to the final on May 31, most likely to face Saracens who, win or lose in their semi against Leeds, will be gifted a spot in the ZW Wildcard, should Wasps beat Bath in the Parker Pen Final the following week. (Ask Viks!).

Leicester home and away, eh? Just a year ago that would have been a big ask, but right now it’s a prospect I think we can look forward to with anticipation, and some confidence….

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