London Wasps' Friendly Decimation of Exeter

Mostly Happy
By Barney Burnham
August 7 2005

Wasps began their programme of pre-season friendlies with an entertaining 70-26 win over National 1 side Exeter, in front of 2,147 spectators at a sunny Causeway Stadium. The hosts scored ten of the afternoon's 14 tries, with four from flying winger Thom Evans.

 

Irish international Jeremy Staunton - who played the first 40 minutes at fly-half, before going to full-back after sweeping half-time changes - converted all ten in a kicking performance which must have impressed England kicking coach Dave Alred, who was among the crowd.

Exeter took the lead after 15 minutes, when the Wasps defence failed to cope with a well-placed chip to the corner. Centre Junior Fatialofa was first to the ball, as it bounced awkwardly in the in-goal area. Winger Gary Kingdom converted with a fine kick from the touchline.

Stung into action, Wasps then roared back with four tries in eight minutes. The first came from skipper John Hart after Fraser Waters and Stuart Abbott combined well in the centre.

Staunton added a second, dummying and stepping his way through the defence after fellow Munsterman Eoin Reddan took a quick penalty.

The third was a gem. Staunton looped behind Waters, whose behind-the-back flip was sheer perfection. Staunton fed Evans, who raced over beneath the posts. Then James Haskell pounced on a loose ball near the Exeter line to power his way over. Staunton's conversion made it 28-7.

There were several near misses, with left-winger Edd Thrower's long run down the right-hand touchline ending just short of the Exeter line.

Try number five was the result of good clearing up by Reddan. The scrum-half did well to gather untidy lineout ball near the halfway line. When the ball was fed out to the backs, Tom Rees came into the line with power and pace to draw the defence, before sending fellow flanker Jonny O'Connor over.

Exeter got one back in injury time, when skipper Stephen Ward intercepted a stray pass to go over, but Wasps ended the half with another try from Evans, ending a move which began with another quick penalty from Reddan, back in the Wasps half.

42-14 up, Wasps rang the changes at half-time, but it was again the visitors who opened the scoring, when Gareth Mason ended a forward drive in the corner. Kingdom couldn't add the two points and Wasps soon retaliated with a try from Rob Laird (who'd moved out to the wing), after Joe Mbu's pass went over the head of Staunton.

Two minutes later Evans completed his hat-trick, after a spectacular move launched by Staunton deep in his own 22.

Try number four for Evans came almost immediately, after a long pass from James Honeyben sent him clear for a 40-metre sprint down the touchline.

The game then began to lose pattern and it was Exeter who scored next, with a try by Mark Gabey. Kingdom's conversion made it 63-26.

It was not until the 79th minute that Wasps added their final score, when George Skivington went over in the corner. Staunton's conversion sealed a fine kicking display.

The most satisfying thing for Wasps supporters was to see Fraser Waters and Stuart Abbott reunited in midfield, after lengthy absences through injury. Both looked sharp and hungry for action.

Waters was making his first appearance since last November, and admitted feeling nervous before the game. He says he is still feeling a little discomfort from the ankle which kept him out of the for so long, but he was delighted to have got 40 minutes of running rugby under his belt. His flip pass to Jeremy Staunton, which set up the first of Evans's four tries was a joy to behold and came straight off the training ground. Fraser did enter fantasy land when he tried to claim that he used to run like Evans. In your dreams, Fraser.

Stuart Abbott, whose season had been ended in January, by the outstretched leg of the Serial Tripper from Biarritz, was also delighted to be back in action. "I had a few restless nights ahead of this game." he admitted. "I was very nervous, but I'm delighted to have got a game under my belt. There's now so much competition here, and that's great for everybody." He was also full of praise for the performance of new signing Staunton.

Staunton himself felt that his performance had been average. He felt that some of the moves had worked well, but that the defence was frantic and, at times, diabolical.

Coach Shaun Edwards was also critical of the defence - "Defensively, we weren't our usual aggressive selves" - but revealed that pre-season training has involved very little contact work. "We'll be stepping that up from now on."

Despite that, he felt there had been many plusses. "This was a good pre-season game. The linking and finishing were excellent."

The other big plus was that there were no major injury worries. There had been fears for Ben Gotting, who went down awkwardly in the first half, and was substituted shortly before halftime - but he soon recovered and ended up expressing frustrating that he was not brought back on. In what could be a big season for him, he looked sharp and aggressive. One tackle evoked memories of a certain Samoan.

Edd Thrower was carried off with an ankle injury, halfway through the second half, but he was soon walking unaided, with a large ice-pack on the offending joint. Shaun is optimistic that it's not serious and that he could be fit for the Middlesex Sevens on Saturday.

Shaun also revealed that the Newbury game, on August the 20th, will again feature a large proportion of up and coming players, before a near full strength side is picked to open the Ospreys' new stadium on the 26th. "We're expecting that to be a very tough game. They'll see us a prize scalp, and I expect the game to generate much more passion and intensity than the one we played at Llanelli last season."