The heavy rain made the ball incredibly slippy and prevented either side building any continuity of possession. All five successful penalty kicks came in the first half but the worsening of the conditions throughout the game led to a rare scoreless second period. Chris White's arm must have been sore from the number of times he had to wave it back and forward to signal a knock on.

With Austin Healey injured Sam Vesty once more played at ten and enjoyed a fairly successful first half. Both he and Geordan Murphy kicked plenty of Garryowens as Tigers tried to cause panic in the Wasps defence. In fact Leicester almost scored in the first few minutes after Paul sampson let a high ball bounce close to their posts. Tigers gained possession and Jamie Hamilton was held up over the line.

Wasps almost scored a try of their own after a neat inside from van Gisbergen ball put Dallaglio through who then gave Josh Lewsey a run to the line. With no cover it looked bleak but Steve Booth amazed the crowd by not only turning chasing and catching Lewsey at full pace but also executing a perfect tackle to end the danger.

Tigers missed the quick accurate passing of Tom Tierney as Hamilton flapped and hesitated too often and put additional pressure on Sam whose own handling deteriorated with the conditions in the second half. The pack struggled to gain any advantage over a strong Wasps eight who refused to allow Tigers to drive the maul.

Both sides defence was nothing short of outstanding particularly in the tight exchanges and the penalty count was very low for a Premiership game. Neither side was willing to give any penalties away within their own half. Josh Kronfeld seemed to revel in the wet and was at his ball-stealing best around the breakdown.

A straw poll of supporters including web site regulars Razcal, Office Boy, Tigers Tart and Denise gave a unanimous Man of the Match award to JK. Let's hope he can take this form into the next few games when we will need him playing well with the England boys missing.

The media as usual have moaned at the poor handling skills and lack of tries in this game. Rugby Union is a varied game and a close, low scoring, blood and guts encounter has it's place just as much as a free flowing try fest. The crowd at Welford Road generally seem to prefer the former and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If I wanted forward passes, non existent tackling and 45 - 40 score lines then I would watch Super 12. But I don't so I won't.

Let's hope for a similar result next week when we once more visit our envious East Midlands cousins at Franklins Gardens. As I write this we are currently in third position in the league on points difference and seven points behind leaders Gloucester. The next couple of weeks could be very interesting with Gloucester on a Friday night bound to present the most severe challenge to our home record.

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