Wasps go out in style, despite the ref

Can we play there?
By Loose Head
May 6 2002

As we said farewell to Loftus Road, not knowing where we will play next season, Wasps continued the recent good form with their fifth win on the trot. We do have to thank Saints though for fouling up the scoring chances they did have.

Wasps 17 Northampton 6

And a special vote of thanks to Dawson, whose battle with his own captain, Poutney (that famous Scotsman), shows no sign of ending.

No thanks go to the officials, led by Mr Pearson, who out Landered Lander to such an extent the crowd were beginning to think the unthinkable - that they would actually prefer to have Steve Lander officiating. Last year an article appeared on the web site about the EMMAs, the referee's Oscars - the Ed Morrison Myopia Awards. This one performance by Pearson would scoop all. Lying on the ball, forward passes, knock ons - you name it he missed it. The touch judge saw Dawson throw a punch, it got penalised but no yellow card.

We seem to have to put up with cheep shots from Dawson. Last time we met he kicked Beardshaw in the head at a ruck in full view of the nice new (expensive) stand at Frankenstein Gardens.

The Wasps performance was in between the Leicester and Gloucester games' performances and the Sarries and Quins games performances. For Richard Birket's match report on the "official" site click here. Saints squandered the scoring chance they had and Wasps took that as a warning and bolted the door shut. Tackling was superb.

One of they key points of interest for me was how was the centre pairing of Denzil and Josh would work. Simply put, it did. Denzil still has the habit of going inside nearly every time he gets the ball but more happens to it, he can commit players and get to ground to recycle the ball, open up further phases. Josh seemed to love the idea of being passed the ball rather than having to retrieve it as full back. He drove three Saints players back and over the try line, unfortunately not being able to ground the ball. His strength and control get brought to bear much more often with him more in the thick of things at centre.

The whole crowd - and players too no doubt - wondered what was going on when there was a penalty to Saints inside the Wasps half, Grayson didn't want a shot at goal, whch seemed to be what Poutney thought as well. So why did Dawson decide he would kick himself? Needless to say he didn't have the distance. Another little petulant strop?

The scoreline only progressed in 3's until in the second half, with the score at 9-6 the forwards stamped a bit of authority on proceedings with a try from Sandie. Saints never looked like scoring a try in the second half, the new Wasps proverb must be "defence is the first line of attack".

When Saints took the ball into contact right near the Ellerslie Road stand and dropped it, a knock-on was given and Saints had the scrum. To say there was a gasp of amazement was an understatement as most people are of the opinion that if you didn't have the ball you couldn't knock it on, hence the surprise that Saints had the put in. Flabbergasted, Denzil must have said something and he was penalised. OK he shouldn't have - let the ref ref blah, blah - but after the woeful performance throughout the match this was the cherry on the top. The touch judge had an abundantly clear view of the knock on so it was unclear why he didn't correct the ref.

Down to 14 when Lawrence was sin-binned for hands in the ruck (which, along with lying on the ball had been pretty much Saints' forwards ruck play throughout the game, but never mind, eh?) the defence was severely tested and held. Wasps ending up yet again denying the oppo a bonus point.

How we could have done with this sort of form earlier. An observation that originated from LBND: three home games needlessly lost before Christmas which if had been won we would be third. Echos a point I have made in the past that the difference between success and failure is surprisingly narrow.

Talking of failure, we are off to play Bath next weekend. Last game of the league season. With Bath and Sorries in freefall they can thank the odd win they had earlier in the season to put them just above Leeds and probably safe from the drop. If Leeds win midweek against Sale or next weekend against Glozzer at home (not the most likely of scenarios admittedly) Bath will be playing for premiership, if not the club's survival. Game on!

Loose Head