Sale v Wasps 1 October 2010

By Whaley Shark
October 3 2010

Well, since it was Mrs Whaley’s birthday this weekend and I went to Friday’s game, I’ve had to do a fair amount of penance, and it’s taken until now to find an hour to write up the match. Still, that has given me an opportunity to pause for thought and, rather than blow-by-blow, I have some rather more general impressions.

The first half was very tight. Both sides made quite a few errors, conceded penalties and failed to establish dominance, which is why the half time scores were tied at 12-12. Memorable moments were the crunching tackles on Haughton from Fearns and Briggs, and the colour Shaun Edwards’s head went when Tom Varndell juggled the ball into touch in front of him. Plum doesn’t do it justice…..

The second half started similarly, with us frittering away possession at lineouts, while Wasps seemed unable to find touch cleanly. We had a let-off when a clearance kick was charged down but went dead, then pulled ahead with two penalties in a couple of minutes. We then fell behind after a Wasps penalty landed short and was cleared to our 10 metre line. Wasps won the lineout, set up in midfield and chipped for the corner. Under pressure, Paul Williams batted the ball dead, giving Wasps a strong attacking position, from which Dan Ward-Smith battered his way over. Dave Walder converted. We kept plugging away though, forcing Wasps into errors, and kicking two more penalties. We couldn’t kill the game off though, as Charlie had a drop goal attempt charged down and Wasps pulled a penalty back when Andy Tuilagi was penalised after being tackled. We had a lot of possession at this stage and some good pressure on the Wasps’ line, but lacked accuracy and, when Charlie knocked on with three minutes to go, Wasps were able to drive forward from the scrum into our 22 to set Dave Walder up for a winning drop goal.  

I did find it a gripping game, mainly because of the “Oh God, what’s going to happen now?” moments, but I also found it puzzling. I felt Dwayne Peel had an off-night, taking a couple of steps sideways before passing, cramping the backline and giving the Wasps’ rush defence time to come up. Our continued difficulties at scrum and lineout are starting to worry me. Much of this is practice and, from my playing days in the distant past, I still remember sessions of 100 or more scrums in training, though not at all fondly. So this is a bit of a puzzle. I also don’t know why we made almost no substitutions, especially with the lineout misfiring as much as it did, and Dwayne apparently struggling too. Overall, both sides looked like teams struggling to gel and, on current form, probably destined for the lower half of the table.

Positives- I don’t think that we blindly reverted to last season’s tactics. We kicked more than against Falcons or Quins, yes, but still much less than for most of last season- I have the notebooks to prove it! Also, we kicked with more purpose, and followed up better- just ask Richard Haughton, who got clattered half a dozen times! If handling the wet ball was difficult- and both sides seemed to have trouble- then Charlie’s bombs did have a purpose. So I think we saw a deliberate change of strategy, to cope with wet conditions and player absences, and tailored to the opposition. In the end, it wasn’t quite enough and, since they did score the night’s only try, I can’t quarrel too much with Wasps victory. There seems not to be an official man of the match, but I think it might be Carl Fearns for me.