No changes were made to the back line but a number of changes, some positional, were made to last week’s pack. Steffon Armitage came in as flanker joining brother Delon for the first time together in the Exiles side. Barry Everitt took over the captaincy for what I believe was the first time.

Wasps made a number of changes in their line-up including call ups for Phil Vickery and Lawrence Dallaglio and a number of debutants.

The kick off was delayed due to a serious road accident causing delays to the fans arrival.

With less than 2 minutes gone Danny Cipriani had the chance to open the scoring but a simple penalty from the Irish 22 went wide.

Wasps eventually opened the scoring when a maul following a line out was pushed over the line and Dallaglio touched down. Cipriani made no mistake with the conversion. Wasps 7 Irish 0

In the first 12 minutes Irish made too many mistakes and their first real excursion deep into Wasps territory came to an end when Tagicakibau was tackled 22 metres out . The ball spilled forward but we did not bind correctly in the scrum so the penalty allowed Wasps to clear.

Barry Everitt gave us our first points from a penalty and we were fortunate a minute when Cipriani missed again. 7-3

Tagicabibau was again in attack but this time he had support and a pass inside sent Ricki Flutey over for the try. Barry converted and we were in front. 7-10

Eventually Cipriani coverted a penalty at his third attempt to level the scores. 10-10

From the kick off Steffon Armitage marked his debut with his first yellow card as he took out the Wasps player in the air.

Wasps were able to exploit gaps in the Irish defence. Although one of their players played the ball on the ground at a ruck it was Irish who were penalised for offside. Luckily Cipriani again missed and we were back into their half. Barry attemped a 44 metre penalty which fell to the left of the posts.

So Steffon was back on the pitch and we had managed to weather the storm without conceding points. However when we were just breathing a sigh of relief another Armitage went off. It was adjudged that Delon had made a dangerous high tackle on Amor which looked very borderline. A mass brawl followed the incident and the ref had to go to the touch judge to decide what had transpired.

All in all it was not a scintillating first half. Wasps showed a better pace in attack while we were forced to defend well to keep them out. We were fortunate that they had no in-form kicker or else we would have been 12 points down.

Half Time – Wasps 10 London Irish 10

The second half opened with Irish on the attack but a turnover gave to ball back to Wasps and a long period of attack was rewarded when Tom Voyce exploited large gaps in the Irish right flank and went over for their second try. Cipraini coverted to put his side back in front again. 17-10

Irish made a number of changes the most significant was Mapusua coming on a centre with Flutey moving to replace Barry at 10. Paice and Kennedy also came on in the first minutes of the half. Although we had emerged unscathed from the first yellow card we had dropped 7 points during the period of the second.

Wasps were the dominent side in the first 20 minutes of the half popping up with the ball when least expected. We were fortunate that their ball retention was not as efficient and they had to depend on the boot of replacement Alex King to extend their lead with a penalty. 20-10

Flutey added a try to bring us back to within one score going into the last 10 minutes. 20-13

Another infringement at a scrum in front of the posts gave King an easy kick to restore a 10 point lead. 23-13

A lead they maintained until the final whistle.

Final Score – London Wasps 23 London Irish 13

Where did it all go wrong? We were unable to capitalise on any decent possession we had. Unforced errors and silly infringements thwarted all our efforts. My Irish man of the match - Sailosi Tagicakibau . What about Mapusua? We didn’t get to see him much in attack as we were on the back foot throughout the second half but he impressed in defence. He tackles well and makes sure he is in a the right position to do so.

We are still in with a chance of qualifying but now must beat Cardiff in December and then get the calculators out.

Wasps
James Brooks, David Doherty,Fraser Waters, Dominic Waldouck, Tom Voyce, Danny Cipriani, Simon Amor; Tim Payne, Jonny Barrett, Phil Vickery, George Skivington, Richard Birkett, James Haskell, Tom Rees, Lawrence Dallaglio (c)

London Irish

Michael Horak, Delon Armitage, Gonzalo Tiesi, Riki Flutey Sailosi Tagicakibau, , Barry Everitt, Richie Rees, Tonga Lea'aetoa, Danie Coetzee, Richard Skuse, Nick Kennedy, Kieran Roche, Aidan McCullen, Steffon Armitage, Phil Murphy

Referee- Andrew Small

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