Greenstock punishes off-colour Wasps

Dome wings in
By Sparkie
November 19 2002

Harlequins grabbed their fourth successive home win with a tactically astute if somewhat limited game plan. The truth was that Wasps barely asked questions of Quins' defence and we got what we deserved on a greasy, cool, autumnal day.

The game was never going to be a classic in such conditions. However, the final analysis has to be, why did we play so unintelligently? Playing the crash ball with a bar of soap was always a high risk path to take. It was a day for keeping both hands on the ball.

We opened the scoring in the third minute after a bright start and then produced a catalogue of mistakes during the rest of the half. If Quins were hampered by the loss of their scrum half, Nick Duncombe, then they refused to show it.

With the score standing at 6-3 to the hosts after the first quarter, Quins were the first to opt for a clean break. Ironically, it came from one of our own lineouts with our jumpers all at sea. Alex Codling stole the ball and swiftly fed his backs. Nick Greenstock swooped, cut against the grain and stepped past both Ayoola Erinle and Josh Lewsey to score without a hand being laid on him. Paul Burke srtetched the lead to ten points with the conversion.

The game should have turned back our way when Scott Bemand was sin-binned for a ruck offence in front of the referee. However, we continued to knock-on the greasy ball and woefully failed to execute a long pass to Kenny Logan who was lurking on the overlap. Our desperation increased when Burke used the platform earned by André Vos' forwards to drop a 40 metre goal.

Erinle was replaced by Fraser Waters as a change in tack was clearly required. Unfortuately we eschewed a kickable penalty in search of five points and ended up with none.

Wasps established a better pattern to our play when Lawrence Dallaglio entered the fray early in the second half. King added two more penalty goals. In bygone days we would have defended our line to the hilt. Lately, however, as soon as we score we commit a foolish penalty in front of our posts and allow our opponents a free pot-shot.

Our best period of possession stretched Quins' dogged defence at last. Phil Greening showed the backs how to step inside from the wing to reduce the deficit to five points. Sadly, although we remained mostly in control of the ball, we failed to make further inroads. Quins' clearance kicks cleverly kept us running the ball back from deep and, as often as not, our up-and-unders simply failed to put their backs under any pressure.

Conceding another silly penalty goal minutes after having clawed our way back into the match, we proceeded to ignore our own penalty chances in favour of kicking for the corner. Time and again our lineouts were spoiled. Quins were even able to weather the storm at the end of the match when Tana Fuga was deservedly sin-binned for killing a ruck after 70 minutes.

The dénoument was utterly predictable as we introduced two late replacements. With Wasps still playing catch-up football, Quins were able to clear their lines, kick-ahead and pressurise Shane Roiser's chase back. Although the ball was recovered and protected in a ruck, somehow tired minds and bodies allowed the ball to squirt out. Burke was on hand to charge down a desperate attempt at a clearance and he scored in the corner, right on full-time.

Vos and his stand-in Quins had chased and harried us to the death and deservedly won the day. Their back row tackled us to a standstill. Meanwhile our continuing frailties at restarts and lineouts and our lack of tactical nous were all too apparent.

If we had gone for goal with the three or four kickable penalties on offer to us then we would not have had to chase the game. Our failure to do so meant that we could never exert enough pressure on the makeshift Quins team that included four wingers by the end. A losing bonus point or, perchance, even a narrow win was thrown away.

A lack of points gained the road will cost any team the chance to finish in the top three and deny a team the chance of a Heineken Cup place. The writing is on the wall. Will we read it and make amends and find the road to the Zurich Championship?

Wasps: 15 Josh Lewsey; 14 Shane Roiser, 13 Stuart Abbott, 12 Ayoola Erinle (Fraser Waters, 36'), 11 Kenny Logan; 10 Alex King (Mark van Gisbergen, 76'), 9 Rob Howley (Capt.); 1 Craig Dowd, 2 Phil Greening (Trevor Leota, 77'), 3 Darren Molloy, 4 Joe Beardshaw, 5 Richard Birkett, 6 Mark Lock (Lawrence Dallaglio, 41'), 7 Paul Volley, 8 Peter Scrivener.

Hardlywins: 15 Nathan Williams; 14 Matt Moore, 13 Rob Jewell, 12 Nick Greenstock (Ugo Monye, 51'), 11 Ben Gollings; 10 Paul Burke, 9 Nick Duncombe (Scott Bemand, 3'; sin-bin, 29-39'); 1 Bruce Starr, 2 Tana Fuga (sin-bin, 71-80+1'), 3 Laurent Gomez, 4 Bill Davison (Jim Evans, 58'), 5 Alex Codling, 6 Ace Tiatia, 7 André Vos (Capt.), 8 Tony Diprose.

Referee: S Leyshon (Bristol).

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