NOT THIS TIME

The opening quarter saw Wasps at their worst, shipping two converted tries in exchange for a penalty goal. A searing break by Danny Cipriani before half-time reduced the deficit to a manageable four points. But at the back of the mind of every follower of Wasps was the one telling statistic of this season. Tries have been few and far between. Would this match be any different?

Dominic Waldouck stole in after a kickly tapped penalty,, and the portents seemed better with Wasps one point to the good. However, a spilled catch close to the goal-line by Rob Webber, and a similar fumble further out by Mark Van Gisbergen sewed the seeds of ultimate disaster. Castres broke down the left wing with Paul Sackey missing from action, and a missed tackle later, they were home and dry with minutes to spare.

What could so easily have been a bonus point win and qualification from the pool became yet another disjointed disappointment. So, what lies behind Wasps winter of discontent?

There seem to be two interrelated causes.

1. Wasps' inability to change with the times - Wasps' inability to adapt, ie: understand how referees manage the game under the new protocol, stay on your feet at rucks, don't play too much football in your own half, and so on and so forth.

2. Coupled with this has been Wasps' eschewing of the qualities which were the foundations of success between 2003 and 2008: the strategy of high risk, high reward rugby to which Josh Lewsey alludes in his forthcoming book "One Chance" (out on Feb 5th):

"Shaun Edwards...arrival, along with Warren Gatland, changed the culture at Wasps. Warren was a realist and knew what mattered to players. He championed a ferociously powerful and confrontational ball-carrying and retention game, a high-risk, high-reward, revolutionary style of blitz defence, but most significantly, along with Shaun, a mental approach that is in my experience unique and the key to the winning characteristic embodied by the players."

Individuality was encouraged and people were judged on their performance on the field alone. We may have been the collection of social misfits, waifs and strays that Warren described us as, but we certainly started performing on the pitch."

So , failure to adapt along with our lessening of risk and individuality on the park has shorn our players of the precision and spark that carried them to eight trophies in six seasons. The Guinness Premiership is also a much harder playground than it was six season ago. The difference in fitness levels between teams has narrowed. A bottom four team can upset a top four team.

Add in the new deal with England, and the conclusion is stark: with so many international players unavailable to Wasps this season was always going to be a longer, harder slog than ever before. Exit from the Heineken Cup may not be such a bad thing. Only a near perfect run in will yield a potential top four position. Could such a thing come to pass?

Possibly, but based on the evidence thus far, this is an unlikely proposition. Never say die but, should we fail to finish in the top half of the Premiership this season, it will cause a fundamental check in reality, and a review of all processes Black and Gold. Beware the Ides of March?

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