2)  Our place kicker did not live up to his name missing two or three kicks he would usually get and so the match never became close enough to see whether Wasps would choke. 

3)  The laws of the game were not good enough to stop Wasps replacing an unfit prop with a very fit and hard tackling Joe Worsley just at the moment when it was most convenient for them and to take the benefit of uncontested scrums at the same time.

 Wasps moved 3-0 in front on five minutes thanks to a penalty from Van Gisbergen after Aaron Mauger had been penalised for playing the ball off his feet at a ruck. Tigers were level four minutes later when Riki Flutey was penalised for lying on the wrong side of a ruck after Goode's left-footed grubber kick had put Wasps under pressure.

Wasps were looking the stronger and were soon back in front as openside flanker Rees went over the middle of the ruck from two yards for a try with the game 12 minutes old. Van Gisbergen added the conversion from 10 metres in to give the Wasps a 10-3 advantage. Wasps continued to dominate in the forwards, including the set scrums, and the lead became 10 points with 23 minutes played through a second successful penalty.

Tigers rarely had the ball but on 30 minutes Ellis picked up at the base of a Tigers scrum deep inside his own half, drew Flutey and set Tuilagi free. The Samoan ran over Eoin Reddan's attempted tackle. Tuilagi drew the full back about 30 metres from the Wasps line and made an inside pass to Ellis but he was caught by a couple of nearby Wasps. However, a Wasps infringement at the resulting ruck saw Goode cut the deficit to 13-6.

Again Tigers got the ball and attacked the Wasps 22.  However a mistimed pass saw Tom Varndell scrabbling to keep the ball from going into touch.  Sadly he only kept the ball alive for Simon Shaw to rumble away.  This attack never saw Tigers recover a fully a satisfactory defensive line and Josh Lewsey pounced through a gap by Ben Herring and under the posts. Thus it was 23-6 at half time.  

Tigers came back out very late.  There had been a lot to put right in the dressing and Tigers came out to make a fight of it.  There was more zip to the contact area and the scrums began to go better now that Phil Vickery had decided 40 minutes was all he could manage.  Seventeen minutes of the second period passed without a score. Tigers then won a penalty on the edge of the Wasps 22 with 50 but Goode struck the right-hand post for his first miss. Ellis then chipped towards the Waps try line and Paul Sackey was forced to tap the ball over his own deadball line after the Tigers scrum-half assisted by Tom Varndell had come to within inches of claiming the on the try line.

Tigers were rewarded for their renewed enthusiasm with two tries in quick succession.  First Goode kicked cross-field towards the corner flag for Murphy to guide the ball back infield for Varndell to score from less than a metre. Then Ellis crossed untouched as he sprinted off the back of the first uncontested scrum, which happened to be 5m from the Wasps line. Goode's conversions both failed from wide out. 

Both kickers then failed with penalty attempts, Goode from a very easy position. Then ill discipline with about eight minutes to go gave Van Gisbergen a chance from the very edge of his range.  The ball crept over the bar and Wasps could do a comfortable Munster for the remaining minutes.

There was no shame in this defeat for Tigers, just frustration that once again Wasps had out manoeuvred them.  Whether some of the manoeuvres were in the spirit of the game is for history to relate.

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