By Jeremy O'Gorman
September 4 2006

The omens were not good in the Village before the game. Eldest son swiped ineffectively at a black and yellow stinging insect buzzing around his face and dropped his beer.

I do like the Double Header though. Two games of Rugby, bumping into all sorts of old friends and memories of Twickenham in days gone by.

The first game, Quins V Irish was frankly a load of rubbish; both sides
seemed incapable of holding on to the ball, or of doing anything
constructive with it. That is until the last 10 minutes when both sides
realised they were still in with a chance. Frenetic play left Irish the
close winners. We would not be troubled by either team on that
display.
 
Then the main event; even from the kick-off you knew it would be a
better game. Ball cleanly taken, a forward tussle to and fro, finished
off with a long touch kick. I had not realised at that time how much the
wind had risen or how big a part it would play in the final analysis.
Twickenham's high stands take away the elements and the sense of
involvement, reducing the game to a TV style spectacle.

Wasps attacked strongly, earning a penalty for offside; Walder, on his
debut for Wasps, missed the reasonably straightforward kick; or was it
the increasing wind. Then a nightmare moment; a hard tackle and a Pest
centre goes off injured; on comes Erinle - I have never understood why
that man has not received the highest honours. He was a handful all
afternoon, scaring the pants off our defence; my man of the match. So it
proved here, skipping through two tackles; Kev and Cec for a try under
the posts. I was just grateful Wasps underestimated him too - hardly
giving him the ball.

Sarries were straight back into the game; Glen with his trademark show
and go - half past Walder, slipping it to Ben Johnson for a run in under
the sticks. Glen converts for 7-7. Five minutes later we are in the lead,
Pests offside and Glen steps up with the penalty. Wasps are not
distracted and push the game in the Sarries half. Two penalties are
awarded, offside and crossing, but Walder is finding difficulty with his
boots (or the wind) and he only gets one.

Then the defining moment of the game; Sarries break out of their half,
well into the Wasps 22 - a penalty; Glen steps forward to put us back
into the lead, but no. Yates, overawed by Twickenham this year as well,
collects his yellow card and the penalty is reversed. There is a pattern
to the results with Yates play: 2004 Yates try on Debut - Sarries win:
2005 /2006 Yates yellow card - Sarries lose. Our players have the bit between their teeth though and play well with 14 to force another penalty, from distance, with the wind behind, Glen slots it over 13-10.

Yates' absence is then felt strongly as Wasps get a lineout in the corner.
Denied a prop, our defence suffers in the close play and the maul drives
home. Walder once again misses the kick (2 from 5). Sarries are not down
yet and a great run from Haughton sees Leo take off the top of his head
in the attempted tackle. A yellow card and a penalty to the corner.
Sarries huff and puff at the lineout, another penalty. Glen slots it
over and at halftime we lead by 16-15.

The second half started well for Sarries as, back to full strength and
with Wasps a man down, they try to make the advantage count; it works.
Scabs, who had probably his best game since, well since he left Leeds,
crowns off a fine run with a Sarries penalty. Glen, who kicked
beautifully, missing only one long range effort, slots home again -
19-15.

That really was the end of the game from a Sarries point of view. Wasps,
use their nous and experience to play the conditions, and the referee, to
perfection. Kicking to the corners, both ways so Scabs did not know
which side to defend, and with the wind at the back, gave them field
position. Maybank seemed to forget the offside rule every time Sarries
had the ball, and clever killing of rucks and mauls gained turnover ball
in good positions.

The pressure of running out of their own 22 eventually told with a
couple of penalties; the first reasonable, the second controversial, gave
Wasps the lead 21-19. And so it finished; with Sarries seeming to lack
the ideas, pace and stamina to get back up the pitch. Scabs finished off
his great performance with a storming run. Byrne seemed to be clear of
the defence, but knocked on, and the chance was gone.

All in all, a disappointing end to a close match. The day, I felt, was
summed up on the way back to the station with an overheard mobile phone conversation. A London wide-boy was loudly on his phone to a mate. "Yeah, just been up to Twickenham for two games of Rugby. The first was a bit crap, but the second was a real proper game of rugby. Wasps just shaded it. Yeah, well worth watching"

  SCORERS: Saracens: Try: Johnston (12min). Conversion: Jackson. Penalty goals: Jackson 4 (15, 29, 40+2, 49). London Wasps: Tries: Erinle (9), Palmer (31). Conversion: Walder. Penalty goals: Walder 3 (21, 61, 64).

SCORING SEQUENCE (Saracens first): 0-7, 7-7, 10-7, 10-10, 13-10, 13-15, 16-15 (half-time), 19-15, 19-18, 19-21.

SARACENS: D Scarbrough; T de Vedia, K Sorrell, B Johnston, R Haughton (rep: R Penney, 61); G Jackson, A Dickens; K Yates (sin-bin, 27-37), F Ongaro (rep: S Byrne, 58), J Visagie, T Ryder, S Raiwalui, P Gustard (rep: K Chesney, 65), D Seymour, H Vyvyan.

LONDON WASPS: T Voyce; P Sackey, F Waters (rep: A Erinle, 6), R Hoadley (rep: J Staunton, 41), J Lewsey; D Walder, S Amor (rep: E Reddan, 54); T Payne, R Ibañez, P Bracken, S Shaw, T Palmer, J Worsley, T Rees (rep: J Hart, 58), D Leo (sin-bin, 37-43).

Referee: R Maybank.

Attendance: 51,960.