A Worrying Defeat - Wasps v LI Match Report
By Cormac
September 11 2006
London Wasps beat the Exiles on a balmy, windless evening that turned cold in Wycombe on Friday. Despite lots of poor aspects to their performance, Irish held on for a bonus point, thanks largely to the boot and general ubiquity of Riki Flutey.
September 11 2006
London Wasps beat the Exiles on a balmy, windless evening that turned cold in Wycombe on Friday. Despite lots of poor aspects to their performance, Irish held on for a bonus point, thanks largely to the boot and general ubiquity of Riki Flutey.
Bob Casey led the team in Mike Catt’s glaring absence. Those hoping for a repeat of the extraordinary 43-try spectacular last April were to be disappointed by an error-strewn encounter, the side making fewer unforced howlers emerging victorious.
Somewhat unwisely, your humble correspondent left ticket purchasing until the middle of the week, and so the only seats left were miles away from the action. Hence (since it’s hard to look through binoculars and write at the same time), expect more than the usual sprinkling of factual inaccuracy in what follows.
The match began with a Wasps penalty for a binding offence. Alex King slotted it without any trouble, and Wasps took a lead they were never to relinquish.
As the first burst of Athenry drifted across the ground, Irish turned a Wasps scrum, which the referee chose not to notice. From the resulting kick and return to touch, Wasps threw long to Worsley in midfield for the second time, and for the second time he was completely unmarked. Paul Sackey (harder-working but slower than when he was one of ours) knocked-on in a tackle, and the Irish had a scrum.
Wasps got their own back, turning it through ninety, which of course Mr Davey picked up. A back row move involving the influential Dan Leo led to a ruck, at which Danie Coetzee slapped the ball out of scrum-half (and one of three Irish old boys) Simon Amor’s hands. A yellow card was unsurprising, and King kicked the easy penalty to give Wasps a 6-0 lead.
Both sides were trying to move the ball at this stage, but Irish just didn’t seem to get going. Wasps weren’t playing beautiful rugby, but were winning the battle for territory convincingly.
Committed Irish defence after the restart saw a stolen ball, the overused and unproductive tactic of Dom Feau’nati running straight into his opposite number and standing up – Brendan Venter he ain’t - and eventually either Ojo or Shane Geraghty (it takes shockingly bad seats to get those two confused) isolated in a ruck. Wasps stole their ball back with ease, and won a penalty in the following ruck. King struck it well to increase Wasps’ lead to 9-0.
Irish finally troubled the scorer after 23 minutes. An Irish scrum in Wasps’ half set up a rehearsed move, and a Flutey kick to the corner. Wasps tried the long throw to Worsley for the THIRD time in twenty minutes, but this time Irish were wise to it. He fumbled it and was pounced on, the ball snaffled, and a Flutey cross-kick into the grateful arms of Topsy Ojo produced a lovely try in the corner. Flutey missed the difficult conversion, and Irish trailed 9-5.
Irish were now well on the back foot, but keeping up bravely. Lots of good work was undone by penalties (Wasps had conceded none in kicking range) and fumbles, of the kind you see on a freezing winter night – but the conditions couldn’t have been better.
There followed two bizarre rucks, with Hodgson, unable to wrestle the ball free himself, screaming at the forwards behind him to help him out. They didn’t, and Wasps easily recovered possession.
The sides swapped half-chances, and Irish nearly scored again when another Flutey cross-kick was agonisingly just too high for Tagicakibau in the corner.
The best passage of play so far came five minutes before half-time, when after some poor handling at the back, breaks from Feau’nati, Leguizamon, Geraghty and Danaher set up a beautiful long Flutey drop goal. Irish only a point behind at 9-8.
Irish perfectly executed another rehearsed tactic, that of conceding immediately after a score. A Wasps throw in the Irish half led to a maul, and a blindingly obvious forward pass from King to Lewsey. He cleverly chipped past Delon to touch down. King’s conversion scraped the underside of the crossbar. 14-8 to Wasps.
Irish finished the half with a superb passage of play, kicked off by a sublime break from Leguizamon, but a pass to Ojo’s feet brought the inevitable knock-on, and 14-8 was the half-time score.
Wasps nearly began the second half with a second try, this time from Leo, but Hodgson saved the day, and ran the ball out from under the posts. It’s unnecessary to say he had a doggedly good game – you know that from seeing he was in the team.
More chances were on the way, with a great break from Lewsey, just hauled down, followed by an excellent Irish surge from Ojo, Geraghty and Dom, but a pass to Murphy (where did he come from? Must have been a half time sub…) went astray. Wasps roared back, Lewsey tackled into touch in the very corner. Play was called back for an easy Wasps penalty. 17-8.
Suddenly Wasps started to concede penalties all over the place. Most were wasted, but Flutey kicked two to pull the score back to 17-14.
King was replaced by the (uncharacteristically, according to Wasps friends) impressive Jeremy Staunton. He began with a long penalty straight from the restart to pull his side back to 20-14 ahead.
Rob Hoadley was sin-binned shortly afterwards. No idea what for, presumably a filthy bit of dirty cheating. Flutey missed the resulting penalty – it looked fine to me, but The Man said no.
With less than ten minutes to go, Wasps tried their Long Throw To Worsley Aren’t We Clever Move (as they probably call it) yet again, but as usual only Hodgson was awake to what was going on. Unfortunately he wasn’t the ideal player to go up against Worsley in a jump-off, and lost. Staunton produced a beautiful snap drop goal in the midfield flak, with neither space nor time, and at 23-14 Irish were again without the bonus point.
A great Irish surge followed, with Ojo being stopped in the 22. Irish held on to the ball, but Geraghty misread what was outside him, and put a grubber through for the no-longer-there Ojo – a typical example of the Irish telepathy just not working.
Hoadley came back on after the night’s contractual fight – the score while he was off was 3-0 to Wasps, as compared with the 6-0 to Wasps when they had a man advantage.
The Wasps front row popped up in an Irish scrum, giving Flutey an easyish penalty for 23-17, back in bonus point country.
Territory was all-important in the closing minutes of the game, and Wasps had it all. Another brilliant Staunton kick to the corner relieved the pressure from the final Irish attack. Wasps drove the Irish line-out maul into touch, and countered with their own. They launched repeated assaults on the Irish line, but the defence held firm until the final whistle.
One couldn’t argue that Wasps weren’t the better side, but only in that they made fewer mistakes. They were certainly beatable, but the Irish weren’t the team to do it. Only the fact that we somehow managed to field three or four Riki Fluteys saved the bonus point. You’d swear that he’d be swallowed up in a ruck at one end of the field, only to catch the resulting Wasps kick at the other.
So, all in all, a shapeless display, showing some limited commitment, but without drive, purpose, vision, skill or direction, and boding ill for future performances – but enough about the match report, at least we got the bonus point.
Somewhat unwisely, your humble correspondent left ticket purchasing until the middle of the week, and so the only seats left were miles away from the action. Hence (since it’s hard to look through binoculars and write at the same time), expect more than the usual sprinkling of factual inaccuracy in what follows.
The match began with a Wasps penalty for a binding offence. Alex King slotted it without any trouble, and Wasps took a lead they were never to relinquish.
As the first burst of Athenry drifted across the ground, Irish turned a Wasps scrum, which the referee chose not to notice. From the resulting kick and return to touch, Wasps threw long to Worsley in midfield for the second time, and for the second time he was completely unmarked. Paul Sackey (harder-working but slower than when he was one of ours) knocked-on in a tackle, and the Irish had a scrum.
Wasps got their own back, turning it through ninety, which of course Mr Davey picked up. A back row move involving the influential Dan Leo led to a ruck, at which Danie Coetzee slapped the ball out of scrum-half (and one of three Irish old boys) Simon Amor’s hands. A yellow card was unsurprising, and King kicked the easy penalty to give Wasps a 6-0 lead.
Both sides were trying to move the ball at this stage, but Irish just didn’t seem to get going. Wasps weren’t playing beautiful rugby, but were winning the battle for territory convincingly.
Committed Irish defence after the restart saw a stolen ball, the overused and unproductive tactic of Dom Feau’nati running straight into his opposite number and standing up – Brendan Venter he ain’t - and eventually either Ojo or Shane Geraghty (it takes shockingly bad seats to get those two confused) isolated in a ruck. Wasps stole their ball back with ease, and won a penalty in the following ruck. King struck it well to increase Wasps’ lead to 9-0.
Irish finally troubled the scorer after 23 minutes. An Irish scrum in Wasps’ half set up a rehearsed move, and a Flutey kick to the corner. Wasps tried the long throw to Worsley for the THIRD time in twenty minutes, but this time Irish were wise to it. He fumbled it and was pounced on, the ball snaffled, and a Flutey cross-kick into the grateful arms of Topsy Ojo produced a lovely try in the corner. Flutey missed the difficult conversion, and Irish trailed 9-5.
Irish were now well on the back foot, but keeping up bravely. Lots of good work was undone by penalties (Wasps had conceded none in kicking range) and fumbles, of the kind you see on a freezing winter night – but the conditions couldn’t have been better.
There followed two bizarre rucks, with Hodgson, unable to wrestle the ball free himself, screaming at the forwards behind him to help him out. They didn’t, and Wasps easily recovered possession.
The sides swapped half-chances, and Irish nearly scored again when another Flutey cross-kick was agonisingly just too high for Tagicakibau in the corner.
The best passage of play so far came five minutes before half-time, when after some poor handling at the back, breaks from Feau’nati, Leguizamon, Geraghty and Danaher set up a beautiful long Flutey drop goal. Irish only a point behind at 9-8.
Irish perfectly executed another rehearsed tactic, that of conceding immediately after a score. A Wasps throw in the Irish half led to a maul, and a blindingly obvious forward pass from King to Lewsey. He cleverly chipped past Delon to touch down. King’s conversion scraped the underside of the crossbar. 14-8 to Wasps.
Irish finished the half with a superb passage of play, kicked off by a sublime break from Leguizamon, but a pass to Ojo’s feet brought the inevitable knock-on, and 14-8 was the half-time score.
Wasps nearly began the second half with a second try, this time from Leo, but Hodgson saved the day, and ran the ball out from under the posts. It’s unnecessary to say he had a doggedly good game – you know that from seeing he was in the team.
More chances were on the way, with a great break from Lewsey, just hauled down, followed by an excellent Irish surge from Ojo, Geraghty and Dom, but a pass to Murphy (where did he come from? Must have been a half time sub…) went astray. Wasps roared back, Lewsey tackled into touch in the very corner. Play was called back for an easy Wasps penalty. 17-8.
Suddenly Wasps started to concede penalties all over the place. Most were wasted, but Flutey kicked two to pull the score back to 17-14.
King was replaced by the (uncharacteristically, according to Wasps friends) impressive Jeremy Staunton. He began with a long penalty straight from the restart to pull his side back to 20-14 ahead.
Rob Hoadley was sin-binned shortly afterwards. No idea what for, presumably a filthy bit of dirty cheating. Flutey missed the resulting penalty – it looked fine to me, but The Man said no.
With less than ten minutes to go, Wasps tried their Long Throw To Worsley Aren’t We Clever Move (as they probably call it) yet again, but as usual only Hodgson was awake to what was going on. Unfortunately he wasn’t the ideal player to go up against Worsley in a jump-off, and lost. Staunton produced a beautiful snap drop goal in the midfield flak, with neither space nor time, and at 23-14 Irish were again without the bonus point.
A great Irish surge followed, with Ojo being stopped in the 22. Irish held on to the ball, but Geraghty misread what was outside him, and put a grubber through for the no-longer-there Ojo – a typical example of the Irish telepathy just not working.
Hoadley came back on after the night’s contractual fight – the score while he was off was 3-0 to Wasps, as compared with the 6-0 to Wasps when they had a man advantage.
The Wasps front row popped up in an Irish scrum, giving Flutey an easyish penalty for 23-17, back in bonus point country.
Territory was all-important in the closing minutes of the game, and Wasps had it all. Another brilliant Staunton kick to the corner relieved the pressure from the final Irish attack. Wasps drove the Irish line-out maul into touch, and countered with their own. They launched repeated assaults on the Irish line, but the defence held firm until the final whistle.
One couldn’t argue that Wasps weren’t the better side, but only in that they made fewer mistakes. They were certainly beatable, but the Irish weren’t the team to do it. Only the fact that we somehow managed to field three or four Riki Fluteys saved the bonus point. You’d swear that he’d be swallowed up in a ruck at one end of the field, only to catch the resulting Wasps kick at the other.
So, all in all, a shapeless display, showing some limited commitment, but without drive, purpose, vision, skill or direction, and boding ill for future performances – but enough about the match report, at least we got the bonus point.
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