The Future's Bright - The Future's Black and Gold

Slightly flatter?
By Loose Head
September 30 2002

Possibly the best Wasps performance ever in the first and part of the second half. It was against a London Irish side which judging on this performance should be near the top of the table. Wasps combined full blooded defence and full blooded attack to claim their first away win of the season.

The most notable change to the Wasps team was Kenny Logan dropped to the bench. He may not have liked it but inevitable given his performances. The most notable thing about the team listing in the programme was that we were called Saracens! Honestly! What an insult (at least we weren't put down as "Harlequins")

The danger that was Irish came all too quickly. Denney lost the ball on the crash in the centre. Irish ran rampant, twice crossing the line but being held up for a scrum. The second time was a short pop to Drotske at a few yards out who burst through. Dallaglio did a "bear hug" tackle, and falling back took the whole weight of the charge on his chest. The tackling was immense and Shaw managed to grab, wrap and turn his man to secure the ball for Wasps. It was 5 minutes of Irish in the Wasps 22. The first score was a Wasps penalty on 10 minutes after an obvious offside at a lineout.

A couple of minutes later Wasps had a penalty well in their own half after Sackey held the ball whilst tackled. Rob Howley tapped and ran then punted down the wing into space. Sammo came through like a whippet with his backside on fire, collected and scored. Phenomenal vision from Howley. It was Wasps turn now to be rampant. The handling skills and recycling of the ball at speed and in the face of tough opposition was of the highest order. The score was screaming to be taken, firstly by Lawrence who was brought down by two or three short of the line. The recycling from the breakdown meant there wasn't really a breakdown! If Sandie [Shaw - geddit?] had noticed the three man overlap he may have thought to pass out rather than go for broke. Actually, to be fair, it was a great smothering tackle which prevented Sandie from passing out of the tackle. In itself a try saving tackle. A ruck following the next lineout saw a trademark Howley - dummy, burst through and score. With conversions, at 31 minutes the score was London Irish 0 Wasps 17.

In past games Wasps have put together moves periodically. This time it seemed constant. True 15 man running rugby. The handling was unbelievable. The speed and accuracy of the passing and the close support was pushing Irish to the limit. They still managed to force errors with solid defence work. But even a muffed up pass was immediately taken back in and the move continued as if nothing had gone wrong at all. Cracks were inevitably appearing and a pop left from Lawrence to Roiser way off his own right wing saw Shane in for Wasps third and most spectacular try. At half time it was London Irish 0 Wasps 24. Irish supporters later acknowledged this half as the greatest display of rugby against them they have ever seen.

In years gone by, a team down by so much at half time may have come out pretty unenthusiastically. To say this was not the case with Irish is an understatement. If they were going down it would be with all guns blazing. For almost fifteen minutes of intense pressure which was defended by Wasps with a tackle rate going through the roof, all Irish had to show for it was two missed penalties.

Following a Wasps lineout and drive, Irish handled in the ruck to give a penalty in their own 22. With the way they were feeling Alex King kicked for the corner. Wasps won their own lineout and a series of drives saw Dowd to force his way over for a try and Wasps bonus point at 58 minutes.

Irish came straight back with the same level of intensity and at last the pressure counted as they finally at 60 minutes broke through for a try. Then just 3 minutes later it took fantastic defence from Josh to prevent Sackey from grounding the ball over the line. The third time Irish had crossed the line and been held up.

Warren Gatland appears to be a gambling man. The next few minutes saw the side transformed with all 7 substitutes on the pitch. In all, Abbot, King, Howley, Dowd, Greening, Shaw and Dallaglio were replaced by Logan, Van Gisbergen, Wood, Molloy, Gotting, Beardshaw and McCarthy. The attacking flair was still there but the disruption showed in the defence. There was defensive confusion between Sammo and Kenny which resulted in two high kicks being muffed. My view was a little restriced for the most significant one so I may be a little unfair, but that was a cross-field kick and we had numbers there. The mess up lead to the second of two tries in this last 10 minute spell.

The final score was London Irish 21 Wasps 31. A five-pointer away from home is never a bad thing. It would be unfair to say that Wasps played well for only 70 minutes of the game because of the disruption of all the substitutions. This was one of, if not the best performance by Wasps, taking us nicely up to second spot in the league.

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Loose Head