AMLIN CHALLENGE CUP PREVIEW: WASPS v GLOUCESTER
On tour
By Dobbin
April 8 2010
Gatecrashers. Don't you just hate them? There we were, enjoying our private party in the back-streets of Euroville, strutting our stuff where nobody seemed to notice, when all of a sudden three evictees from the big shindig up the road decided that the night was still young and they'd try their luck elsewhere. And here they are, pitched up on our doorstep, demanding to be let in.
Gloucester, Cardiff and the Scarlets. Politely asked to withdraw from the Heineken do for being slightly too drunk in charge of a football, they've descended on Bar Amlin instead, where standards of behaviour are slightly more relaxed. Welcome in, boys, I suppose. Stop for a drink. Admire the view. And don't let the door hit your backsides on the way out.
This Sunday Wasps play Gloucester in the quarter-finals of the Amlin Challenge Cup. By a strange coincidence, it will also mark six years to the day since Wasps met Gloucester in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup. April 11th 2004, Adams Park, Phil Vickery and Trevor Woodman in cherry and white, Tom Voyce in the black of Wasps. A French referee in the middle. It was a pretty good day for Wasps. The final score was 34-3, tries from Leota, Dallaglio, Howley, Erinle and that most durable of players, Penalty (still on form, as we saw last week against Irish). At that stage, on that day, it seemed like our most complete performance of the year. But then came Munster at Lansdowne Road and Toulouse at Twickenham. When they talk about peaking for the end of the season, that's the sort of thing they mean.
The one significant difference this weekend, of course, is that the two clubs meet not in Europe's premier tournament but in its junior partner. In fact only one English club has made it into the Heineken Cup quarter-finals (Northampton), and that only as a lucky loser. Predictably, Peter Wheeler has already started whingeing about the salary-cap (that's when he hasn't been whingeing about the Ospreys). You can understand his point, I suppose, even if you don't particularly agree with it. When Premier Rugby are about to recruit (or so we're told) a salary-cap manager, to oversee and ensure compliance at all its clubs, and at the same time Leicester are resigned to losing Lewis Moody, Sam Vesty and a few others from their squad at the end of the season, things probably don't seem fair to the Welford Road hierarchy. On the other hand, we still don't know if the performance of English clubs in the Heineken Cup this season is a blip or the beginning of a trend. Isn't it a bit too early to be blaming the salary-cap for failure? Would it really be worth jettisoning the competitiveness of the Guinness Premiership just so that a couple of rich clubs can purchase themselves a tilt at the Heineken? I think not, but then I'm not Peter Wheeler.
Anyway, back to this weekend. Had Gloucester shown their current form earlier in the season, they might still be in the Heineken Cup themselves. Heavy defeats away to Biarritz and Glasgow, together with an unconvincing home victory against the Dragons, effectively derailed their European campaign before Christmas. Subsequent wins against their vanquishers weren't enough to secure a lucky loser's place in the quarter-finals, and so, under this year's revised Amlin Challenge Cup rules, Gloucester 'qualified' to play Wasps. Our qualification route was simpler, home and away victories over Bayonne and Roma and a home win and narrow away loss to Racing Club seeing us finish up top of pool 4 and third seeds for the quarters.
If this match seems less an exotic European clash of cultures than a meeting between old, familiar foes, it isn't helped by the fact that these two teams have already played each other three times this season. As we know, Wasps have won all of these encounters, but it is worth remarking that the margin of victory has narrowed on each occasion, culminating in a tight, 24-19 Premiership win in early March. Gloucester's form has picked up as the season has worn on. Last week's one point victory over Saracens wasn't their most fluid performance in recent times, but it was dogged and determined, and aided by a superb display of goal-kicking by young full-back Freddie Burns. Another youngster, Charlie Sharples, scored two tries. Burns and Sharples, together with absent team-mate Henry Trinder, may sound like characters from a nineteen-forties war film, but they are Gloucester's future and already turning in performances to catch the eye.
Wasps victory in March was built on a big forward performance which, in particular, more than held its own against the vaunted Gloucester scrum. More of the same will be required on Sunday, but I say that with more confidence than I might have done a couple of months ago. Against both Northampton and London Irish the pack has competed with and, for long periods, dominated the opposition. Dan Ward-Smith has been a more than adequate stand-in at lock, the returns of George Skivington, Joe Worsley and, of course, Tom Rees, have added bulk, power, speed and all round dynamism to our forward play, and all this, combined with the new, attack-friendly interpretations at ruck-time, have given our back-line the space and speed of delivery to show what it can do. The sight of a man like Serge Betsen running onto the pitch with twenty minutes to go is something Wasps fans could only dream about during the long, injury-ravaged days of winter. Last week's victory was only our second GP try-scoring bonus of this campaign. Oddly enough, our first came at Kingsholm in October. The prescription is pretty simple, really. No major tweaks, no huge areas of concern to address. Aside from a little more accuracy in the line-out, more of the same, please.
Naturally, there are more high-profile games taking place this weekend. Though our match is being televised, it won't be Miles Harrison or Stuart Barnes lending their gravitas (or whatever you call it) to the commentary - we'll probably get that excitable Irishman instead. But for Gloucester and Wasps this match is vitally important. The Amlin Challenge Cup offers a route into Heineken Cup rugby which isn't certain for either team via the Guinness Premiership as yet. It is also both clubs' best chance of winning a trophy this season. It is the renewing of an old rivalry, an opportunity to consolidate recent good form, and, for Wasps fans, the last chance to see their team at home this season. No, it's not the most significant game of the weekend, it's not even in the top four, but it's Wasps against Gloucester and I for one can't wait.
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The 2004 match was the one where Dallaglio and Volley hit each other and went Sparko, and Vickery went over to make sure they were still breathing.
In any other sport they would have been dragged off - but who would dare to tell Dallaglio he couldn't continue in a HEC quarter final?
KevinTheB
www.justgiving.com/kevinbroadbent
I think our 4th Estate representative could learn a trick or two from you!!
Excellent read.
I hope we batter them! If we play like last week then we will!
Sorry wrong game but it is still a happy memory.
Actually most matches against Gloucester are also enjoyable - & we usually win.
Though I hold out hope that a win and it may not be our last home game - still that sniff of a home Amlin semi thanks to the weird new rules.
Come on WASPS!!!!