By SAINT_aitch
December 22 2013

A surprisingly mild afternoon considering the time of year although the sky resembled week old snow adjacent to a major trunk road, black in places but mostly a dull grey it saw fit to upturn a watering can for the entire afternoon on the industrial estate in this leafy part of Buckinghamshire. 

London Wasps vs NORTHAMPTON SAINTS

Aviva Premiership: Saturday, 21^st December 2013. 15:00 k.o

ADAMS PARK, London…oops, High Wycombe

MATCH REPORT

Spirits were not to be drowned though surely Saints were going to walk this, hell we could even leave some of our senior players on the bench today and let some of the younger lads run out. Captaincy was handed to a man who fully deserves it but has never been recognised for it, and lets have that other scrum half start this one too. What could possibly go wrong? This is the team that, just last week, stunned Dublin, silenced all but a handful of a 47,000 seat stadium (I am still hoarse from that trip). Pah, this Wasps team were no match for the mighty Saints steam roller……….

The Saints team sheet was slightly off centre from what we had seen lately with Ken Pisi proving enough dexterity and skill in Dublin to get the Full Back shirt again with North and Burrell looking an ominous centre pairing. A front row of A. Waller, Haywood and Mafu with a engine room that had no real surprises.

The Wasps team were a mixture of young and old which as you looked through it could see that there really is some great potential for this team led in key areas of the field by the likes of Andy Goode, James Haskell, Tom Palmer, Joe Launchbury and Tom Varndell they have some talented youngsters in Elliott Daly and Joe Simpson.

This game was never going to be flowing and ‘winger led’ primarily due to the weather which must have been making the ball very slippery, but also due to the confusing decisions taken by the referee Matt Carley. It would come down to who had the stronger and more efficient pack and, early doors, it seemed that Saints may just have had the nudge on Wasps here but Mr Carley was not happy with the scrum at any point during the match and we all had to suffer reset after reset, bizarrely only giving one penalty for an early engagement by Wasps on the 80^th minute just 25 or so yards out from their posts which Smyler duly slotted to win the match. Fate is a fickle thing.

An early lead was taken by Wasps through a penalty from Daly resulting from a heavy tackle by Luther Burrell on Andy Goode but the restart from that penalty was chaotic and with the ball bouncing all over the place, Luther Burrell came barrelling through, picking the ball up and scrambled across the line to dot down. It looked for all the world like a fairly decent try but after much discussion and communication with the TMO, Mr Carley decided the try was illegal as somewhere, someone had done something to someone!

The game progressed at a fairly even keel for a while with both sets of forwards making efforts to wear down their opposition and both full backs getting a chance to test each other under the high ball. With a concerted effort into the Wasps 22 and some kicking into the corner from Smyler, Saints managed to drive a maul over the Wasps line for Day to dot down giving us a 3-5 lead. Smyler missed the conversion.

The game resumed with more of the kicking game and forwards bashing hell out of each other. Two more penalties a piece saw this half end with a score of 9-11 and Saints must have been wondering what they were doing wrong after last week.

The second half saw a strong push from Wasps who had replaced Andy Goode who never looked to have fully recovered from Burrell’s first half hit. For all Wasps efforts though, they simply could not break down the Saints defence which stood strong throughout and, in some desperation, Wasps resorted to numerous attempts at drop goal and taking 3 points wherever Mr Carley allowed them too. One of these penalty efforts came from a very good 50-55 yard kick from Elliott Daly which only just dropped underneath the crossbar.

Goode’s replacement, Joe Carlisle, changed Wasps shape a little and they were looking the more threatening side in this contest but as long as Saints could keep their heads and not give away too many penalties,….Damn, spoke too soon.

Tom Wood and Lee Dickson were to feel the justice handed out by Mr Carley today as first, with less than 10 minutes on the clock, Wood was yellow carded for a side entry into a ruck which got a little out of hand, and shortly afterwards, Dickson (on for Fotuali’I) was adjudged to have ‘very nearly’ tip tackled Joe Launchbury (you only have to compare the sizes of these two guys to see the funny side of that) which gave Wasps a penalty 25 yards out and that, with only a few minutes left on the clock, must surely be enough o seal the game for them.

With the penalty duly slotted, the score stood at 15-14 and there was just over a minute left on the clock. The restart was knocked on and Saints were given a penalty from a Wasps early engagement in the scrum. With the clock on 80 minutes, Smyler had simply to kick this ball between them two sticks some 30 yards away to win the match…… He did.

Final score 15-17

MERRY CHRISTMAS FOLKS

Stephen Myler Says: