Will Wasps Wallop Us? - Wasps Preview

By BrianC
September 28 2005

The Powergen Cup has been substantially changed this season. The twelve Guinness Premiership clubs have been joined by four from Wales and the tournament has been changed from the previous all knock-out format to one where the opening games are played in pools.

We have a tough draw, matched as we are with Saracens, Cardiff and our opponents for next Sunday, Wasps.

At the start of this season Wasps were the bookmakers favorites to win the Guinness Premiership. Their play thus far this season would seem to justify this. Of the four games they have played to date they have won three and had a high scoring draw at home with the team that many would see as their main contenders for the title this season, Leicester Tigers. Many of us have already seen them comprehensively defeat Saracens in the season opener, at the London Double Header. Make no mistake about it, they are a force to be reckoned with.

Last season we were beaten twice by Wasps. At Wycombe we went down 35-26 having at one stage early in the second half been 12-19 ahead. Our return fixture at The Madejski in February was pretty awful from an LI point of view. We went down 19 – 33. That match, as confusedidentity pointed out in his match report, left us ‘close to being in trouble’.

One particular point of interest for this game is that it should see the return to The Madejski for the first time of our erstwhile hero Paul O’Sackey. Whilst he had already left us for Wasps by the time we played them last February a contractual arrangement prevented him from playing in that match. All reports indicate that Paul has settled into his new club well. He is scoring tries again and is popular with the Wasps supporters. Whilst it will no doubt appear strange to see Paul playing against us he is no doubt assured a warm welcome back to Reading, off the field at least.

So what are our prospects for this game? Most independent observers, bookmakers included, will have this marked down as a Wasps victory. That said they have a very hard season ahead of them. Their mind will be focused on the Guinness Premiership and above all their attempt to regain the Heineken Cup. The question this begs is will they commit themselves fully to the Powergen Cup or will they rest key players in the run up to the HC games later in the month? Even if the latter scenario is the case, Wasps have such a strong squad that even a weakened side will be a challenge for us. One player we should be particularly wary of is Mark Van Gisbergen. He is the by some way the top points scorer in the premiership this season with a remarkable 27 converted kicks out of 28 attempts thus far.

In recent years we have had a some good cup runs, even last season we managed to reach the semi-final admittedly to fall ignominiously at that hurdle. Given that only the pool winners qualify for the semi-final this season it is going to be a tough ask. If we can pull off a result on Sunday we’ll be in with a good chance.