So Close Again; Wasps 19 – Quins 16

By Prof
November 7 2004

It was an evening trip to High Wycombe to see the bottom side in the Zurich Premiership visit the reigning European and Zurich Champions who were on a winning streak. No one would have given Quins any chance in this game. After the first minute things were looking even worse.

Van Gisbergen kicked off long and straight to Greenwood who took his eye off the ball and didn’t gather it, Voyce did though and he flopped over the line for the softest try Quins have ever given away. Van Gisbergen slotted the conversion from in front of the posts while Vos gathered his team around him. 7-0, 1 min.

Buoyed by this fantastic start Wasps pressed forward after the restart and put pressure on the Quins line but excellent defence kept them out and Staunton put in a good clearance kick to clear the pressure.

A solid Quins scrum near the right wing saw Steve So’oialo put in a perfect box kick down the line that he chased up and caught on the full, he then stood up well in a tackle to give the pack time to reach him and the ball was quickly sent left to Tom Williams joining the line on the left wing, he beat one tackle and was tackled into touch just short of the line.

A good break from Dafydd James took the ball deep into Wasps territory before the home side were penalised for hands in the ruck, Staunton kicked the tricky penalty to cut the deficit to 7-3, 10 mins.

The restart was kicked high to Greenwood who gathered safely this time, So’oialo kicked the ball high and long and it was missed by van Gisbergen who eventually hacked the ball forward only for it to be caught by Tim Payne in an offside position giving Staunton another chance of points. It was a 55m kick straight in front of the posts but unfortunately it didn’t have the legs and dropped short and to the right of the posts.

The Quins pressure built with Miall forcing a knock on from Dawson and then Simon Shaw was yellow carded (18 mins) for killing the ball after Quins’ forwards had forced a turnover. Staunton kicked a penalty from about 45m out to reduce the home side’s lead to a single point. 7-6, 19 mins.

From this point on just about every 50:50 decision was given to Wasps by Pearson who was as poor as he was when he refereed us against Leicester a few weeks before. Van Gisbergen missed a penalty to the left of the posts after the referee thought a rolling maul had been pulled down.

The 22 drop out by Staunton put pressure on the Wasps defence and Voyce sliced a clearance kick and it was gathered by Simon Keogh, he sprinted up the left wing but was tackled short of the line but Greenwood was in support and he had the easy task of collecting Keogh’s pass and putting it down in the left corner. The stadium announcer was as competent as the referee when he attributed the try to Keogh. Staunton kicked the conversion from the left hand touch line to put Quins ahead 7-13, 25 mins.

O’Connor ran into Birkett from behind while carrying the ball, an action that you would think might have been seen by the referee and given as an accidental offside, but no, the referee decided to give a later penalty to Wasps for not rolling away from the tackle. Vos was binned and Van Gisbergen slotted the easy penalty to make the score 1013-, 32 mins.

Keogh caught the bouncing ball from the restart and made good yards and had barely touched the ground when the referee again awarded Wasps a penalty. Some huge tackles by Ceri Jones, Worsley and So’oialo prevented Wasps from making any yards before half time.

Van Gisbergen just got his fingertips to a bouncing ball that took it out of the grasp of Keogh who would otherwise have had a free run in from about 15 yards.

So’oialo was harrying Dawson all game and forced some more errors from the ex-Northampton player. Diprose went off with a cut above the eye which allowed Luke Sherriff to come on as a blood replacement (46 mins).

Another penalty was awarded to Wasps for not rolling away and van Gisbergen kicked to tie the scores on 13-13, 48 mins.

Leota, with his ear heavily bandaged, came on for Greening, 49 mins.

So’oialo stole the ball when it squirted out of a ruck but Greenwood was caught in possession and Wasps were awarded a scrum

Quins turned over more ball when they stole the ball from a Wasps lineout and later they stole the ball from a ruck.

Wasps then put a beautiful move together sending the ball left across the pitch at speed, to where Simon Shaw was thundering forward with two me outside him with only Tom Williams between him and the try line. Shaw obviously decided that he could take this inexperienced fullback with ease, he seemed rather surprised when Williams put in a crunching tackle, putting the England lock on his backside and the threat was over.

Leota was the next Wasps forward to be dumped backwards, losing the ball forwards as he did so, when the newly signed Nick Easter put in a thumping tackle. Miall then stole another Wasps lineout ball.

Sherriff made an excellent break through the centres and was steaming for the line with two men to his right, it looked like a try was certain but he didn’t notice the Wasps player catching him up from behind and he was tackled and couldn’t get the ball away for the try.

George Harder put in another big tackle on Voyce and he was yellow carded for not rolling away allowing van Gisbergen to kick Wasps into the lead 16-13, 61 mins. Peter Richards then came on to replace Erinle.

Staunton tied the scores just five minutes later when Staunton put over a drop goal after good Quins pressure. 16-16, 66 mins. 

A good Wasps lineout and rolling maul gave them an excellent chance to win and the ball was sent left and again there was a three on one overlap with only Tom Williams there to defend, Williams bided his time beautifully while the ball was shipped left to Voyce who received the ball and the perfectly timed tackle from Williams simultaneously, But the referee brought play back for an offside in midfield that he didn’t seem to have signalled before. Van Gisbergen slotted the simple penalty, 19-16, 69 minutes.

Easter made good yards from the restart and, after a powerful Quins scrum, George Harder made a good break. Wasps defence on their line was excellent although how the referee missed a number of hands in the ruck and offsides was unbelievable but hardly unpredictable from Mr Pearson.

No more points were added to the score by either side and Quins were left very frustrated by the scoreline after such a fine performance. Sadly the referee didn’t allow the game to flow and the 19-7 penalty count was surprising to say the least when Quins seemed to have the edge in the forwards all game.

 

The Press Conference

I’ve never seen Mark Evans and Mike Scott look so disappointed and frustrated at a press conference.

Q. Is this another example of a team that hasn’t won yet not winning the ones that could come your way because little things just didn’t seem to go your way?

Evs. Yes, and on such small margins, you’re not going to come away from home and win by a streak. Today there were two sort of freaky tries, one apiece and then a penalty shootout. We didn’t play badly, we did some good things, I thought we scrummed very well, really well. I think we had one or two lineouts in the first half and then got it going in the second half. I’ve not got a lot to say really guys, it’s just very disappointing, because we’re playing OK but we’re not getting the results.

Q. It’s a strange situation, you’re probably the best bottom team that the premiership has ever seen. 

Evs. I think what you’re trying to say is that we don’t look like a side that is bottom of the table, but unfortunately that’s where we are. We’ve just come through a really tough five games: Gloucester away, Leicester at home; Munster away; Castres at home and Wasps away, we can’t relax now but we’ve just come through a really tough period. It’s hard when you get so close to it but you can’t just finish it off.

Q. But you could have been in pieces

Evs. Well you give them a seven point to start the game off away from home you think, ‘oh right, OK’ especially when it’s against Wasps, the European and Zurich Champions, when they’re at full strength except for Alex King. But whatever I say it hurts, it just hurts, it hurts me,  the team and the supporters. But we’ve just got to keep doing the right things, it’s the only way, you’ve just got to think that if you keep doing the right things it will turn. It could easily have gone our way tonight but it didn’t. 

Q. Did you end this match with the back row that you might be starting with in the future?

Evs. You mean with Vos, Sherriff and Easter? Sherriff’s done very well coming off the bench in the last few games, he’s a good player. He played a few games at the beginning of the season and perhaps the balance of him and Vossie wasn’t quite right. The team’s not playing badly and the pack’s playing pretty well, which to be honest we weren’t in the first three or four games. It’s very hard to say much about it to be honest guys, we‘ve got to be very strong, keep improving and not be self pitying, we can expect to put a run together.

Q. Has Easter accepted the offered contract?

Evs. He’s accepted it but it’s not signed yet, it’s until the rest of the season with an option for next season. 

Q. How do you think Simon Maling did?

Evs. He’s obviously a good player, he’s an All Black, you don’t get a number of caps for the All Blacks without being a decent player, he’s obviously going to strengthen the squad, but I wouldn’t like to say without seeing the tapes. But Simon Miall and Roy Winters are doing well, the pack are playing really well. 

Evs and Scotty left and after a while Gatling and Edwards came in. 

They admitted that it had been a tight game with one team used to winning getting the result and one team who are in a bit of a slump who played well but who are not used to winning.

They said that Alex King has a sore left foot but whether he plays for England or for Wasps he has some important games coming up. Joe Worsley came off with ‘testitis’ one of the amateur hacks present was confused by this medical terminology until it was pointed out that he would be getting a nice match fee for England next weekend. 

They also said that Quins are playing well but that we just need a bit of luck to start winning.

When asked about Tom Voyce not being in the England 22 he said that there are a few good wings around at the moment ‘Cueto’s in the squad and he’s been scoring a lot of tries recently; Simpson-Daniel would have been there if he hadn’t been injured; Cohen’s probably been selected on past results rather than present results; and Balshall must be very good at training!”

Before the kick off Rob Howley came out to say goodbye to the crowd because he is retiring from rugby, he was a great player and it was always a pleasure to watch him play, all the best to him for the future.

Again the team played well enough to win but with all the 50:50 decisions seeming to go against Quins and the exceptionally high penalty count really ruined Quins chances of victory. Even so the team played some fine rugby especially in the forwards, there isn’t much that needs to be improved except for playing the referee better and not giving so many penalties away.

It’s difficult to single out individuals for special mention, the defence of the whole team was excellent with two players really punching above their weight: Tom Williams and Steve So’oialo. Again we saw a fine performance from So’oialo, he was snapping at Dawson’s heels all game and he forced some errors from the England player, he also put in some huge tackles, showed an excellent kicking game again and distributed the ball well too.

The whole pack deserves a mention too, they scrummaged beautifully, remembering that Ceri Jones is just standing in at tighthead this is a phenomenal effort. The lineout got better throughout the game and the defence around the fringes was excellent especially when you think about Quins being down to 14 men for a quarter of the game.

The difficult thing is going to be for the players to be able to pick themselves up and come out firing next Friday, it’s the job of the senior players and coaches to do it, it’s also the job for the fans to do it when they take to the pitch on Friday at home, get there as early as you can, start making noise when the team are warming up and keep the noise going all game.

Come on you Quins!!

NB Barbara Richardson was due to be covering this match but due to illness she wasn’t able to, I hope she gets better soon.