By Jonathan Stockham
September 14 2014
Round 2 of the Premiership sees Saints get stung by a feisty Wasps side, who had clearly been poked with a stick without benefit of relaxing smoke. Jonathan Stockham reports
Carry On Up the Cul de Sac
A Carry On Film would have been more entertaining than most of the fare on offer in High Wycombe this afternoon as Saints failed to repeat last week’s heroics and overcome a feisty and determined Wasps side. Ho hum, it’s a marathon, not a sprint as someone once saiid.
They don’t seem to go in for big flags on the stadium at Adams Park. The only way to work out the wind direction is to watch the red kites circling overhead and see which way they are pointing when they hover over a point on the ground.
A bird after my own heart, the red kite. They fly for miles with the minimum of effort. The occasional flap of those huge wings but otherwise expert at riding the updraughts and the wind. A bit like a rapid winger on the rugby field with an economy of effort disguising their speed and power.
Sadly we didn’t get to see Wasps “wunderkind speedster” Christian Wade who’d been unsettled in the week by a prang in his sponsored Skoda Roomster when some flanker (no, “flanker”) came in from the side at a roundabout.
Whilst on automobiles, with barely 10 minutes to go before kick off, it looked like 22 Regt SAS were inserting a couple of combat patrols into the stadium as 2 Land Rovers hurtled over the fields behind the Greene King Stand (aka the Terrace). Relax people, it was only the Dashwoods speeding down from the Big House having told Higson that pudding would have to wait as some pleb had decided that kick off was to be 2.00 o’clock for goodness sake!
Oh, the rugby? Right….
The Dashwoods needn’t have rushed, as half time would have been early enough. Scores level at the break at 3-3 as Steve Myler had tended to kick for touch rather than the posts and Andy Goode had kicked as though the ball was a 3lb haggis. All pretty even as Wasps defence stood up well and Saints’ attacking efforts proved fruitless more often than not. The visitors line out was sometimes overthrown and the half back pairing looked ill at ease.
The second half was much the same until Wasps were gifted an interception try as Saints attacked from deep when Ashley Johnson lurked out wide and nicked the pass from Luther Burrell and what appeared to be a Household Division bearskin crashed over in the right hand corner to much local acclamation.
Saints were still having a chat about how that had happened and what to do next when their failure to adequately compete for the ball at the restart led almost instantly to another try after Tom Varndell chipped over the defence line and sprinted ahead to collect the ball, try and even more local noise. Replacement fly half Ruaridh Jackson knocked over both conversions before having to depart with a nasty leg injury.
Saints’ stalwart Christian Day had also been replaced in the second half after receiving treatment for several minutes for a head or neck injury. Hope all is well Daisy!
Wasps nudged further ahead to 20-9 with a well taken penalty kick by replacement replacement fly half Rob Miller and all was looking rather bleak for the visitors until, with 2 minutes to go, Kahn Fotuali’i put Ben Foden in for a consolation try, converted by Myler.
So, a losing bonus point and 5th place in the Premiership table after 2 matches played.
No doubt the coaches will get down to some detailed analysis of the game but the team seemed lacklustre and error prone in the face of a determined and feisty Wasps side who went one better than their narrow loss to Saracens last week.
Teams:
Wasps: Masi, Tagicakibau, Daly, C. Bell, Varndell, Goode, Simpson, Mullan, Festuccia, Cittadini, Launchbury, Gaskell, Johnson, Haskell, Hughes.
Subs: Lindsay, Yapp, Cooper-Woolley, Myall, Thompson, Davies, R. Jackson, Miller.
Northampton Saints: Wilson, K. Pisi, G. Pisi, Burrell, North, Myler, L. Dickson, Corbisiero, Hartley, Ma'afu, Lawes, C. Day, Clark, Wood, Manoa.
Subs: McMillian, A. Waller, Denman, Craig, Fisher, Fotuali'i, Hooley, Foden.
Fotu'ali says:
Jim Mallinder Says:
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