A nail-biting 29-28 victory over European Champions Wasps at Kingston Park was achieved with a penalty from replacement David Walder with seconds left to play, moving us back up the league into 5^th place.

 

The win was gained without internationals Mathew Tait, Jamie Noon and Stuart Grimes, as well as the injured Jonny Wilkinson, Colin Charvis.  Matt Burke withdrew late having had a knee operation on Friday, meaning 19-year-old Toby Flood started at full-back for his Premiership debut, and Adam Dehaty took a place on the bench.  Semo Sititi made his first start since November at blind-side.

 

 

Tom May and Mark Van Gisbergen exchanged early penalties, before May broke free in the Wasps half and made his way towards the left.  After he was tackled, the ball was brought inside and Wasps were penalised in front of their posts, May finishing what he’d started by kicking three points.

 

 

Next it was Toby Flood’s turn.  After taking a high ball on our line he dummied a kick and slipped between two attackers, making a great run and gaining about 35 metres before offloading to Michael Stephenson in the tackle.  Stevo, making his 100^th Premiership appearance, passed inside to Mark Wilkinson at fly-half, who sent a monster kick to the right.  With May bearing down, Wasps were forced into a mistake and James Grindal passed back inside for Wilkinson to touch down our first try of the day.  A fantastic end-to-end move, and May converted to ice the cake.

 

Wasps hit back first through a penalty and then an unconverted try from Michael Roberts from what suspiciously looked like a forward pass from Ayoola Erinle.

 

 

May’s third penalty completed the first half scoring, and we went into the break 16-11 up after an exciting first half in which we more than matched our illustrious visitors.

 

Flood’s excellent performance was crowned early in the second half when he set up a Phil Dowson try from close range, converted by May.

 

 

23-11, another try would’ve sealed our win but Erinle kept Wasps in the match with a try a few minutes later.  Van Gisbergen’s conversion put Wasps within one score, and after he hit his third penalty the game was delicately poised with just two points in it.  David Walder, who came on for Flood, settled our nerves with a penalty, but would it be enough?

 

Wasps searched for more points, but when Roberts received the ball on the left of halfway there didn’t seem to be much immediate danger.  However, the winger waltzed through multiple defenders to score a soft try to level the score at 26-26, as Van Gisbergen went for the conversion.  The touch judges’ flags were raised, and it seemed we had managed to throw away three points.

 

 

But we didn’t give up, and in injury time we were given a penalty on the left.  If Walder kicked through the posts, we would steal four precious points.  Kingston Park fell deadly silent, you could’ve cut the tension with a knife as he stepped up to the tee…

 

 

and scored!  29-28, but it wasn’t over yet.

 

 

Wasps kicked off, the ball was given to Walder to kick high over the West Stand – the last action of a heart-stopping game.  The boys saluted their fans as we sang for them before a drink could calm the nerves.

 

 

JJ’s hen party got into action in the West Stand and Mark Wilkinson was awarded Man of the Match, and our newest international Mathew Tait put in an appearance.

 

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So I hope I’ve conveyed the excitement of the game.  The tension of the last 20 minutes would have been incredible were we not used to it by now, as we led for all but a few minutes yet so nearly let Wasps win.  But we played very well to make up for the “terrible” performance at Saracens last week.

 

 

Top marks go to Semo Sititi for a strong performance with and without the ball, Tom May for his attack and kicking and Mark Mayerhofler, who again showed how vital his intelligence and experience is to our defence.

 

Special mention to Monkey for his excellent impression of a drunk after the game.  And a message to the idiot in the South who shouted foul abuse at Van Gisbergen – neither your language not attitude are welcome at Kingston Park.

 

Next week we fortunately don’t have a game as England play France at Twickenham, so thoughts now turn to our visit to Welford Road on February 19^th to play league leaders Leicester.  It never gets any easier, but at least we have kept up our record of never having lost at home to a European Champion team.

 

Man of the match.

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