Thuggery takes gloss off running rugby feast

Jumping Jack
By Sparkie
October 29 2002

A fourth minute brain-fade by lock, Adam Eustace, effectively sealed Gloucester's first defeat of the season at Adams' Park. Despite being a man down for the rest of the game, the Cherry and Whites pushed Wasps right to the final whistle before going down by three tries to one.

One cannot legislate for skulduggery. Perhaps Eustace had been overhyped before the off but giving Alex King a working over right in front of the referee, Nigel Williams, was not the brightest of starts for the visitors. King stamped his own authority on the game by kicking the ensuing penalty goal.

As is our wont, we muffed the restart and gave Glaws the platform for one of their trademark driving mauls. Thirty metres later the maul was collapsed by Joe Worsley. Ludovic Mercier kicked the equalising penalty. Glaws might have expected Worzle to be watching from the sin-bin. Providence took a hand -- Worzle tripped up chasing the livewire James Simpson-Daniel and had to leave the field soon afterwards. Peter Scrivener got an early chance to oust Lawrence Dallaglio from the no.8 berth and Nigel Melville had to reshuffle his pack too -- James Forrester made way for Ed Pearce's much needed bulk.

Such comings and goings fazed Wasps temporarily at the next scrum. The ball squirted out untidily beyond Rob Howley and another old-boy, Andy Gomarsall pounced on the loose ball and he quickly fed his backs. Terry Fanolua punched a hole through our disorganised line and scored under the posts in the tenth minute.

Ayoola "Oogie" Erinle went off for repairs following his first full-bloodied charge on his Premiership debut. We were being severely hampered by some less than engaging front row manouevres, all of which were bought by the referee Nigel Williams as being Wasps fault. A closer inspection of Trevor Woodman's stance at the scrum downs should have been the correct remedy.

As a result it was not until the second quarter that we got the ball rolling again. A half break was rewarded with a penalty lineout and Phil Greening almost scored from open play. He was tackled close to the goal-line having chosen to ignore Simon Shaw hangin out on the wing. The ref adjudged it had been grounded short of the line as he did not have the benefit of Sky's cameras. It mattered not a jot. Wasps ran good line out ball, LBND sprinted through and blood replacement, Mark Van Ginsbergen, latched onto Dome's pass and grabbed his first Premiership try in the left corner after 22 minutes.

Glaws' scrum finally came under pressure on the half-hour mark and the game opened up. First Wasps span the ball through several phases, then JSD countered, haring after a Mercier chip ahead. Josh Lewsey just managed to put him off-balance and Greening got back to make a try-saving cover tackle. All told, the ball was in play for two-and-a-half uninterrupted minutes.

Moments later JSD skinned LBND but was stopped in his tracks by a thumping tackle by our fullback. Although JSD managed to link inside, Robert Todd held on too long and was penalised. We launched an immediate riposte, driving to Glaws' 5m line but a fringing red sleeve was "permitted" to grab the ball when it went loose. Both teams were struggling to keep their lines intact.

The final play of the half will be remembered as just one of many off-the-ball incidents that need reviewing. As we attacked again the ball was deemed to have gone "forward" off King's over-reaching tip-pass. All eyes followed the ball and we missed what exactly caused Kinga to lay concussed as the half came to a close.

After the resumption Oogie snuffed out a Marcel Garvey sidestep. Gloucester's golden winger got very little change from us throughout the match and he held on in the tackle in frustration. Kenny Logan stroked over the 42m penalty to give us a one point lead and it signalled a surge in Gats' black tide after 42 minutes.

A pick up and drive took us towards Glaws' 22 and Howlers noticed that the blindside looked profitable and fed Lewsey. CO feinted one way and stepped Todd and ghosted through Pierce's despairing cover tackle. Teflon converted for a useful 18-10 lead.

Glaws' expensive fullback, Henry Paul, enjoyed a mazy run or two, running straight through us but once scragged, he failed to recycle the ball on occasions. Perhaps LBND thought Glaws needed a helping hand and promptly got himself sin-binned for joining a ruck illegally. Mercier reduced the deficit to five points.

Play continued to ebb and flow at speed but the handling did not quite match the vision. With LBND still on the sidelines, Phil Vickery turned down a long pot at goal in favour of a driven maul. Then JSD and Lucicrous Mercenary combined but outstanding defence kept Glaws at bay. It proved to be Mercier's last contribution.

The pendulum finally swung our way when HP missed a penalty goal after another black and gold hand in the ruck. We got our ruck and drive game going and MVG's third phase break found Shawsie floating on the wing again. Even the presence of Raging Bull couldn't prevent an unconverted try.

The final ten minutes saw a flurry of penalties -- Teflon missed a 44m penalty for us while Glaws spurned several of their own in favour of driven lineouts. Mark Cornwell's red mist decended after he was pushed out of a lineout and he was shown a yellow card at the next breakdown for exacting revenge. Shawsie followed him five minutes later for a deliberate knock-on and HP accepted our charity by slotting the penalty for a losing bonus point at full-time.

So Wasps become European team of the week as Gloucester shoot themselves in the foot. Honours were almost even though as the Cherry and Whites fought mightily to overcome the odds. We must raise our game even more to quieten the Tigers roar this weekend. The positives we can take forward are our continuing ability to score tries and our stout defence. Our lineouts are near perfect now too but we need to work more on winning restarts and securing our scrummage. We cannot afford to gift Leicester any soft tries.

As for Clive Woodward, watching from the stands, he will have been pleased with the form of LBND and Shawsie form. For Glaws, Raging Bull was an eternal rock, JSD shone more brightly than the teenage star on the other wing and HP looked more assured but not the complete article at fullback. If anything, CO underlined why he should be in England's development plans rather than Paul, who rather failed to link with his wingers on the counter when required. Forester will have to wait to strut his stuff against Saints.

Off the ball and after the event, Warren Gatland pragmatically decided to deal with the incidences of thuggery behind the scenes rather than wander down the citation road. Whichever way we look at them, all such incidents were unedifying. The citing official and directors of rugby know that they are charged with eradicating wrong-doing before someone gets seriously hurt. Thankfully, Kinga was merely concussed by the unwarranted clip around the chops.