High Flying Wasps Brought Down to Earth

I turned up two minutes after kick-off, coincidentally the same as last week at London Irish. Was this to be an omen? I certainly had to stand virtually on the touchline in Idiot’s Corner, which usually indicates a crowd well over 10,000. We certainly didn’t start like we did at Irish, virtually as soon as I got onto the terrace Shaun Perry profited from lax Wasps’ concentration by taking a quick tap penalty and running powerfully into the Wasps’ defence. The Bristol forwards were well up in support, setting up an excellent rolling maul and driving over Darren Crompton for what I think is his second home try in successive games. Not a bad effort for an aged prop! Not a bad effort from Bristol either. Jason Strange’s conversion, from almost the same spot as the last second attempt against Saracens, never looked like it would miss. 7 – 0 to Bristol with just over four minutes played.

In these early exchanges both sides, but particularly Wasps incurred the ire of the referee. Combined with a number of knock-ons, it led to Wasps concentrating on a kicking game, the breeze behind them, with Walder attempting to pen Bristol back. This appears to be the preferred tactic against Bristol at the moment, but it was edging towards 25 minutes of play before Wasp’s were able to gain any real territory. Before then, Bristol looked eager to build on their early strike. Craig Morgan, operating at fullback, took one of Wasps’ long kicks, swerved around the chasing Wasps and made an excellent kick to touch. His left footed kicking has been really useful to Bristol . We also appear to be using the long-range boot of Lee Robinson for reaching touch from the middle of the park. I’ve thought this was a good idea for some time and I’m please Richard Hill is taking my advice!

Bristol’s failure to capitalise on their early dominance was thrown into sharp relief when Wasps scored two clinical tries in quick succession. Firstly, Wasps won a good lineout and got the ball out quickly, with a big miss pass creating a large overlap. Paul Sackey was the grateful recipient and he had the pace to run in. Fortunately for Bristol Walder misjudged the strength of the wind and was wide with his conversion attempt, to leave the score at 7 – 5. Not for long though. Another lineout win saw the ball again spun out towards Sackey who this time had the power to force his way through the despairing Bristol tackles. Walder was accurate with his kicking to take the score to 7 – 12 with just under half an hour played.

Last season I think we would have reverted to a forward-dominated approach at this point; this season though, we appear to have the confidence to try something different. Bristol took the ball into the heart of the Wasps’ defence, Perry slung out a pass to David Lemi that was fractionally behind him. He used this momentary pause to wrong foot the onrushing defenders, stepping outrageously around the floundering Wasps’ scrum half, then moving inside Sackey and making his way to the line vainly pursued by Simon Shaw. He appeared to wind himself as he touched down, but the score was now 12-all. Strange was wide with the conversion attempt.

As at London Irish, Bristol seemed to up their game as the end of the half approached. Lemi made another good run from the restart and Robinson too caused problems with a powerful drive towards the Wasps’ 22. Indeed, Shaw was forced to bring Robinson to a halt with what the referee deemed a dangerously high tackle. I had a pretty good view of this and it didn’t look too bad. I read some Australian research on serious spinal injuries recently, which showed that high tackles weren’t a major problem, and neither was the scrum (so no reason to move to uncontested scrummaging). The main area of play for serious spinal injury was when a player was ‘gang’ tackled. Perhaps the lawmakers should think about these sorts of things rather than turning Union into a crowded version of League.

Shaw received the yellow card and Bristol opted to kick for the corner, presumably thinking that the Wasps’ lineout would prove vulnerable in Shaw’s absence. Some of the crowd thought a scrum might be a better option. Seconds later Wasps were down to 13 when Bracken received the yellow card for toppling the Bristol jumper. I didn’t have a good view of the incident, although it looked rather as if the Bristol supporters dropped the jumper, but it might be that he took out the supporting player. In any event the crowd in Idiot’s Corner were now baying for the scrum to be used against the depleted Wasps. It was not to be and Bristol promptly lost the ball at the lineout. Wasps could even have lost another man around this point as I’m fairly sure I saw a punch thrown by one of their front row, but the referee sensibly decided a lecture was the better course of action.

Bristol, with the numerical advantage, now seemed to lose their composure and conceded a number of penalties and failed to hold onto the ball. Staunton was wide with one kickable penalty attempt. Josh Lewsey, anonymous otherwise, had a good run halted by a fine Perry tackle. Bristol had the last chance of the half with Robinson going close, but when the ball was recycled from the breakdown Bristol botched a two man overlap. It remained 12-all at half time.

Bristol started the second half in the same tentative vein. Wasps were soon back on the score sheet with a Staunton penalty when Bristol infringed at a ruck. 12 – 15 to Wasps before their sinners had returned to the fray. Typically, Bristol now reverted to more controlled rugby and a lovely chip over the Wasps’ defence was, by a whisker, too long for Lemi. At the ensuing scrum Bristol were awarded the free kick and Perry tapped it and went for the line but was held up. Another scrum followed and the referee awarded another penalty for some technical infringement. This time Bristol decided to take the scrum when they hadn’t against 14 and 13 men. Inevitably they then gave away a penalty themselves to allow Wasps a relieving kick to touch.

As Wasps attempted to put the game beyond Bristol ’s reach, Morgan attempted a long touch finder from a narrow angle and put the ball directly into touch to give Wasps a good attacking lineout. Walder was not held by the defence and he set Erinle free. Bristol were forced into conceding a penalty as they halted the attack. This time it was the turn of Wasps to kick for the corner, for Bristol to concede another penalty and for Wasps to take the tap-and-go. Wasps, to the relief of the Bristol supporters, turned over possession as the defence just about held on.

Bristol now struck back from a lineout of their own. Replacement Nathan Budgett, just on the pitch, took a good ball, fed Matt Salter who sent Perry into space; as the defenders attempted to halt Perry a gap opened, which was rapidly filled by the speeding form of Dan Ward-Smith. Perry slipped a neat inside pass and Ward-Smith out-paced the Wasps’ defence to score an excellent try. Strange made short work of the conversion and Bristol were back in the lead 19 – 15.

Once again Wasps attempted to overpower the Bristol resistance. They gathered the ball from the restart and Bristol gave away another penalty. Walder struck it well but the ball struck the upright, to the momentary relief of the crowd. But we’ve all seen tries scored from this sort of situation and the ball was allowed to bounce unclaimed by any defender. Wasps did claim the errant ball and drove over the line beneath the posts. Worryingly, the referee and one touch judge looked inclined to give a try, but Tony Spreadbury had seen the glaringly obvious knock-on and advised against it. A breathing space for Bristol . For a brief time only, as Wasps strove to get back on the score sheet. Bristol gave away another penalty and this time Walder reduced the deficit to 19 – 18. Perry, though, ensured Bristol were able to play the last ten or so minutes well inside the Wasps’ half with another well judged defensive kick.

Bristol were playing good, controlled rugby. Patient work and first-rate ball retention allowed Robinson to cut an excellent line and then show that he does have good handling skills by offloading in the tackle to Josh Taumalolo who plunged over the Wasps’ line for the bonus point try. Strange was unerring and Bristol were up 26 – 18. There was still time for Wasps to score with another penalty kick to narrow the gap to 26 – 21, but the Bristol defence was resolute. Wasps conceded a scrum to Bristol as the final seconds ticked away and it was simply a matter of hoofing the ball to touch for the final whistle to be blown.