A year ago, London Wasps were slowly winding up towards their traditional new year charge towards the play-offs. Five weeks ago London Wasps were in their traditional autumnal mire. A trip up to Kingston Park was just what the doctor ordered.

Six penalty goals and a last gasp try later and, bizarrely, Wasps lie ninth in the Guinness Premiership, just three bonus point wins behind the surprised and surprising front runners, London Irish. Newcastle take over from the Champions above torpid Bristol, with Northampton providing the luncheon meat in between in tenth.

What did Waspies.net make of this victory? asteriskszegol left some well-balanced observations:

The forwards put in a huge effort on Friday. The style was ugly, but realistic - with Gizzy playing inside centre, not a single pass out from him all night! - they did themselve proud, allbeit in a predictable fashion. Not sure how it played on TV, but they cleared bested the Falcons in every department except on the Falcons lineout. Webber, especially, is dynamite with ball in hand, hitting the gainline at pace. Although Reece etc. may have been in better form than the backs on international duty,it is the backs that Wasps are mising most.

Dave Walder played well throughout, except for his attempts at dropping a goal. He was the man who kept us on the front foot, and his penalty kicking was admirable, especially the final one, when there was a storm of booing in response to the ref's decision to yellow card the spear tackle (a bit of a harsh decision from where we were, about ten yards away...)

I don't know what Otis has done to some people on this board, but he was the real man of the match: yes, his pass does take an age to wind up, but his sniping in attack and defence was a match-winner, and his box kicking was conistently excellent.(Which is not to say that Joe will not play his part: his try up here in the Powergen was pure class....)

Mitchell played well enough, but the predictability of his kicking the ball from hand after gathering takes away the counterattacking threat that has always been the wellspring of many of Wasps' points.

Hugo Ellis did a few good pick and goes, but he looks frail by comparison to Dan Leo: some real beefing up is requred.

Bish looked hungry for the ball, and a yard faster than anyone on the pitch - the first time I've ever seen him look the part, A games or not.

Overall, reports of the Wasps' demise are exaggerated: all the components are in place, once the mising backs have returned, for a good Christmas and a Happy New Year. Well done, as ever, to the shadow squad: often playing out of position, especially in the backs, they've done good job of holding it all together.

RuislipSteve added:

Positives - A Win, Some good phase play, good territorial game, good defense at the end not to give weak penalties away.

Negatives - no shape to the backs (at times it was like a pack of wolves chasing the ball), Walder and Mitchell constant kicking away of posession, not clinical enough early on in the 2nd half, too many handling errors.

Going forwards, this ground out win could be the platform to build upon piece by piece and make progress towards top 6. However, but I'm glad we were only playing Newcastle tonight and not a quality side.

So, will this win herald a warm spring or a temporary thaw before our bleakest mid-winter? The evidence thus far points to the latter in the eyes of most onlookers. The front row continues to creak and the backs have yet to show any kind of creative streak.

The difference between the teams on Friday evening was Wasps control of possession and territory, even if the scoreboard was rarely troubled in the second half. Given that the international contingent are now available, the core of the pack is competing with the likes of Leicester, Gloucester and Bath, and Danny Cipriani is practically match fit having been drafted into the England squad indecently early, the future may be brighter.

Players like Richard Birkett, Serge Betsen, and Rob Webber are leading by example. If Wasps can stop conceding tries at the start of each half, close out games instead of letting teams back in (Sale), sort out their deficiencies at ruck time, stay on their feet and begin to play with depth and width, particularly in the back three, 2009 could be another successful year.

Results have to improve immediately, however. Edinburgh in December and an early exit from the Heineken Cup beckons.

Those are big ifs. But, to surprise any doom-mongers among us (and the so-called pundits, too), the most telling fact this is that Shaun Edwards has missed just one training session all season. One would warrant that the same would go for Geech. Tony Hanks has rejoined us to even the load still further, and Leon Holden's lineout work is paying dividends.

Perhaps Wasps' best ally is an annual autumnal decline, after all? One just wishes it wasn't always so!

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