After the first match, Wasps at home and Wasps away are the first games I look for in the fixture list.  I guess I feel we have a bit of a rivalry with them, what with signing our first professional-era coaching team Rob Andrew, Steve Bates and Dean Ryan from them, as well as players Nick Popplewell and Graham Childs, in 1995.  Another player you might not realise played for both clubs was Va’aiga Tuigamala, who played a few league games for Wasps in 1996 before becoming a Falcon the next spring.

Our first three wins of the season may seem a long time ago, but it is only 2½ weeks since we beat Harlequins and don’t forget we did destroy Bath in the West Country, so Wasps won’t take anything for granted at the Causeway Stadium.

          Wasps start to the season has been similar to ours (three wins and two defeats), but their defeats were in their opening two matches, against Saracens at Twickenham and at home to Sale, by a combined margin of 5 points.  Since then they have had narrow wins at Leeds and fantastically Northampton last week 9-10, while Alex King’s five penalties helped them defeat London Irish in Wycombe.  With Lawrence Dallaglio now completely focused on the club game and his fellow England stars Matt Dawson and Joe Worsley in the side, Wasps will be a handful and I think we should be satisfied to come away with a bonus point.  Even that would get our confidence back on track.

          We have a history of close matches with Wasps.  In our first two seasons in the Premiership we lost 18-17 and 34-33 at Loftus Road, the former almost derailing our title challenge, the latter being Rob Andrew’s second last club match.  The southerners have won the last three meetings, but by a combined total of only eight points.  Newcastle’s 59-21 victory at the start of 2000/01 remains the most points we have scored in a top-flight match (though Rotherham at home in 2003 and Bristol away in 1997 were bigger winning margins), as we scored six tries.  Our team that day was M Stephenson, L Botham 2T, J Noon 1T, J Leslie 1T, V Tuigamala, J Wilkinson 4C 6P 1DG, G Armstrong 2T, G Graham, R Nesdale, I Peel (M Ward), S Grimes (H Vyvyan), D Weir ©, R Beattie, A Mower (J Cartmell), J Jenner.

Our complete record against Wasps is:

11/2/84        North Road             John Player Cup 3^rd round       D12-12

25/9/93        Sunbury                Courage League Division 1        L21-38

29/1/94        Kingston Park         Courage League Division 1        L16-18

17/12/94       Kingston Park         Pilkington Cup 4^th round          L12-58

7/4/98          Kingston Park         Allied Dunbar Premiership 1       W20-13

22/4/98         Loftus Road           Allied Dunbar Premiership 1      L17-18

11/10/98       Gateshead             Allied Dunbar Premiership 1      W27-19

18/4/99         Loftus Road           Allied Dunbar Premiership 1      L33-34

15/5/99         Twickenham           Tetley’s Bitter Cup Final         L19-29

30/10/99       Loftus Road            Allied Dunbar Premiership 1     D19-19

30/1/00         Loftus Road            Tetley’s Bitter Cup 5^th round  L30-36

12/3/00         Kingston Park          Allied Dunbar Premiership 1    L8-34

23/9/0          Kingston Park          Zurich Premiership                W59-21

28/3/01         Loftus Road            Zurich Premiership                L7-44

11/11/01        Loftus Road           Zurich Premiership                W33-30

16/12/01        Kingston Park         Powergen Cup 6^th round        W24-22

27/1/02         Kingston Park          Zurich Premiership               L22-23

1/9/02           Kingston Park          Zurich Premiership               W24-17

1/3/03           Adams Park             Zurich Premiership               L12-13

2/11/03         Adams Park             Zurich Premiership               L26-30

29/11/03        Kingston Park          Zurich Premiership               L20-23

Total:  P21          W6           D2         L13         F461          A551

Home: P11           W5          D1          L5          F244          A260

Away: P10           W1          D1          L8          F217          A291

          So, we have only won once away to Wasps, in the autumn of 2001, and form suggests we will not add to that record this time.  However, with Jonny Wilkinson looking to get back to form and wings Michael Stephenson and Tom May having excellent seasons so far, a win is certainly possible at Wycombe.  However, our pack will need to improve on last week’s performance against Leicester and we also need to learn how to defend well without Mark Mayerhofler.  These major obstacles must be overcome if we are to fulfil early-season optimism.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon