I could tell it was a bit of a special evening- my neighbours seemed nervy, and the team got much more support than usual during their warmup. After a heart-stopping moment at the very beginning, when Charlie’s clearance was charged down but went dead, we started brightly, maintaining possession on the Wasps 22, then prodding a grubber through to the corner. Wasps withstood that attack but gave us a penalty almost n half way, which Charlie slotted after just six minutes to settle us down. The next ten minutes were rather scrappy- we lost momentum through knock-ons, and squiffy lineout throwing; Wasps put a touch kick straight out and threw away a promising attack with a pass into touch on the right. Eventually Wasps won a lineout on our 22, rolled the maul forwards, and won a penalty on the left. But miracle of miracles, Dave Walder put it wide. A few minutes later, a forward pass cost Wasps a try-scoring chance.

Both sides continued to struggle to establish dominance until Wasps returned a Charlie chip kick straight to Dafydd James, who jinked and squirmed forwards until Wasps gave away a penalty on their ten metre line. Charlie did the business and we were 6-0 ahead with 24 minutes gone. The game remained even until a Wasps defender fumbled a high kick in his 22, we nicked the ball and worked it left. For a moment, we thought Ben Cohen had scored, but he’d put a foot in touch. However, all was not lost- the referee had spotted an earlier offside and Charlie slotted the easy penalty kick to finish the scoring for the first half.

Wasps replaced Dave Walder with Danny Cipriani at half time, but we set up a good attacking position early on, kicking a penalty to touch on the Wasps 22, throwing long, rolling the maul forward and then spinning the ball right before knocking on. A couple of minutes later, we were penalised for crossing and Wasps used the penalty to build a good attacking position on our 22. They maintained pressure through multiple phases, then Ben Jacobs cut through a gap in the stretched defence to score. Cipriani sent the conversion wide but the game looked different at 9-5 with almost half an hour to go.

Then we got a bit of luck. Wasps got hold of the restart, but David Lemi, filling in at scrum half, fired a shocker of a pass to Danny Cipriani, the ball went loose and Wiggy pounced to score. Charlie converted and we breathed more easily at 16-5. We gave Wasps a kickable penalty at the restart, which allowed them to narrow the gap to eight points. Both sides build good attacking positions in the last quarter of the game, but solid defence from both teams prevented any further score- at one point, we defended our 22 as if it was our goal line, driving Wasps backwards repeatedly. The final score came five minutes from time when Nick Macleod, running through the Wasps defence, was pulled back, and Wiggy kicked the penalty. Wasps mounted a last attack and put us under sustained pressure, but ferocious defence drove them back and eventually they knocked on. With full time on the clock, Charlie kicked the ball dead from the scrum.

What did last night show me? Real fight, aggression, courage, commitment, teamwork, discipline- we saw a glimpse of the strength and character of our players and our management. Technically, the scrum went well, as did the lineout, our chasing of kicks seemed more purposeful, we put more into the rucks and mauls, and I feel we were justly rewarded. I think we have built on the solid but unsuccessful performance against Saints, and reminded ourselves that we can win. The crowd responded strongly to the more positive display on the pitch and I suspect there are some sore throats out there this morning. My Man of The Match- I’m not going to choose one. It was a real team effort and I don’t feel I can pick out one individual. Well done to all involved; now another six performances like that please.

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