Ill discipline costs Wasps

By Tight Head
September 3 2002

Two seasons ago the premiership clash at Kingston Park was typified by a cutting wind from behind the now skeletal new stand and an unaccustomed and voracious tackling display from Kenny Logan. It also resulted in a convincing away win.

This time Wasps' dominance of possession and superiority in running flair on a balmy, late summer afternoon should once again have resulted in victory.

That they didn't boils down to one thing - ill-discipline. Whilst Wasps failed to convert territorial advantage, Wilkinson happily converted eight kicks at goal, the only points Newcastle looked remotely capable of scoring. Infringements multiplied as frustration with the referee grew, and unsurprisingly the referee lost patience with the Wasps players, eventually sending Lawrence to the sin bin. The overall penalty count was 26-6 against Wasps, an appalling and unnecessary statistic, and one that all the players need to address.

That process needs to starts with the captain, who now faces a ban of at least one match, and I was told that he apologised to his team mates after the match. We have all admired Lawrence's ability to lead from the front through this committed play. We also know that he has tremendous motivational skills. He now needs to ensure that he leads by example by engendering discipline and is remembered for his natural talent and not perennial dissent.

Although the plans for the redevelopment of Kingston Park look superb, the loss of a complete side of the ground to spectators resulted in your correspondent being tucked away low in the far north-east corner. Trying to comment on Wasps' set pieces or the individual performances of tight forwards is therefore rather futile. However, given the amount of ball secured, the pack was evidently up to scratch on the offensive, and with Howley's quick, accurate and mercifully unhesitant passing, plenty of space was created for our mobile back line.

First blood went to Wasps after King and Wilkinson traded misses [NOT wife swapping -- ed.], Howley creating a try for Josh through a trademark blindside break. However, two or three other scoring opportunities went begging in the first half, and had Wasps' handling been better, the match could have been more-or-less won by half time. Nonetheless Wasps trailed 9-7 at the interval thanks to the first batch of Wilkinson penalties. The visitors also scored first in the second half as Denney broke through the Newcastle defence to score under the posts. But Wasps' lead was relentlessly eroded and overtaken by five more unanswered penalties before a final consolatory and bonus point winning three points from Alex. Final score 24-17.

Your correspondent is not too disheartened, however. As long as the obvious lesson is learnt from yesterday's performance I see no reason why this season should not be a successful one. The omens are there. Cast your mind back to the glorious 1996-97 season. If you check your calendar you will find that the days of the week on which dates fell in that period are identical to this season. Our championship year opened with a narrow away loss to Sale, we played our first match at our new ground on Sunday 8th September, and I wouldn't mind another 36-40 thriller at the Rec on Saturday 14th, would you ...?

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Tight Head