Bordeaux stunned by Lightfoot Oogie

By GD
December 17 2002

We got off to a very assured start....for about 2 minutes. However, for the next 18 or so, I thought we regressed into some of our habits from the Leeds and Sale home games.

We kicked far too much ball away straight down the opposition's throat, our line-out was a shambles, and the Bordeaux centres shredded our defence on several occasions. It didn't look promising, despite some flashes of great play.

Oogie changed the game on about 20 minutes. The excellent match report on the official site describes his try as Lomu-esque. If anything, I think this doesn't do Oogie justice. I've seen Jonah score from half-way before, but I've not seen him look as light on his feet as Oogie did, nor have I seen him side-step three opponents. As he touched down by the posts several of his colleagues surrounded Oogie in congratulation in a scene more reminiscent of Highbury than Sudbury. Wasps supporters in the crowd got to their feet in celebration and chanted his name. The try was that good, and (dare I say) unexpected, both in the context of the match and the season.

Oogie's try brought the scores to 10-10 and the balance of the game shifted. Stuart Abbott, by now playing at full-back, then came to the fore and kept the momentum going. Whether he sensed the unease in the Wasps crowd, or was as frustrated at his colleagues' kicking as the rest of us, he decided that running with the ball was the way to go. Fielding the ball deep in our 22, he looked up, side-stepped the first Bordeaux attacker, embarassed the second on the outside, then shot inside the third one before intelligently grubber kicking up the tram-lines. Shane shot across from the opposite wing and bundled the full-back into touch. From our 22 to their's, and we retained possession. Easy.

Later on in the half, Abbott stopped a certain try. The Bordeaux backs had again broken out on half-way and their winger just had Abbott to beat, with two colleagues on his inside in support. Abbott cleverly showed him the outside, blocking the easy pass to a supporting player. The winger hesitated slightly, decided to go on the outside, got scared by Abbott's pace, hesitated again, then committed himslf to the outside. As he crossed into the 22 Abbott had to commit to the tackle. As he made the tackle the French winger passed to one of his colleagues who then got clobbered by Shane from behind about 10m from our line. Abbott's brains, skill, and superb defensive "shepherding" had stopped a certain try by delaying the attack for long enough for Shane to get back. My MOTM. Very intelligent, very skillful.

Other pluses? The two tries we scored in the second-half were gems. The first resulted from a penalty we received about 40m out. Our line-out had been a disaster all game. Far too many long throws which our jumpers didn't lay a finger on. Why on earth weren't we calling short throws? With the scores at 13-all Alex shaped to kick for the corner. I had just finished shaking my head and muttering about "numbskull decisions" when our middle jumper took Trevor's throw cleanly and a superbly organised driving maul rumbled us over the line from 15m.

The last try was the end result of a classic Alex King break from half-way. Dowd possibly could have scored, but sensibly gave the ball on to Volley who definitely could and did score.

Negatives?

At 65 minutes we were coasting to victory and so changed two thirds of the front row. In the context of a two-legged tie that was clearly won, a very sensible decision. In the context of the match, almost a disaster. Our scrum disintegrated from thereon in. This gave Bordeaux the platform to come back into the game and almost to sneak it at the end. It took a fantastic last ditch tackle (by who? A candidate for MOTM), to stop the Bordeaux backs scoring a try in the corner a couple of minutes from the end.

Concerns?

Without Dowd and Green our scrum looks to seriously struggle. After young Ali Mac joined the fray Dowd had to switch to tight-head after just two scrums to try and stem the tide. He then took the opportunity of every stoppage in play to to do some coaching. The Bordeaux home game showed Ali's undoubted potential, and he's not going to fulfil it by sitting on the bench for 80 minutes of a two-legged tie that has been wrapped up, but we didn't look clever when Green was replaced.

Line-outs? Stop throwing it long!!!!!

Overall? A very good, entertaining win. Our discipline was excellent! We deserved to win by 14 points. The forwards generally dominated except for the last 15 minutes. The usual in-form suspects played well. Scrivs and Shawsie caught every restart kicked at us. Hallelujah!

Related link: London Wasps Offish Report