By T
April 7 2007

Wasps have not been quite at their best this season, Everyone has been waiting for them to make there normal late season charge to the playoff spots but they seem to be leaving it very late to do so,
Wasps are standing 4 points off Bristol in fifth place having lost 8 games this season. In order to have a chance of appearing at HQ yet again Wasps will hope to pick up a win against Saracens which will make things very exciting at the top. With the future of the HC looking shaky there is no positive for finishing 5th, both teams know what’s riding on this game.

Sarries are the form side in the league and a trip to Wasps should hold no fear…
…Ahhh, who am I kidding, even growing up as a child watching Sarries at Sudbury and Bramley Road you always knew that Wasps held some kid of hold over their local rivals. Who knows if it was a Steve Bates hex, some Morris Colclough deal with the devil or whether Rob Andrew performed some kind of voodoo magic on the true men in black, the result was always the same. Whether it was Chris Oti, Simon Smith or Rob Lozowski running in the tries, not even a kinder egg could cheer me up after seeing my heroes put to the sword year after year.

Then a ray of light; for some reason Wasps evil magic didn’t work one day at Twickenham (perhaps because a greater evil already lurks there?!) and we trounced them, by which time I was celebrating with something a bit better than a kinder egg! Normal service was soon resumed as the evil magic once again took hold of the real men in black and Wasps beat us like Joe Calzage fighting a reality TV contestant year after year.

As the years roll on Wasps evil magical hold on us seems to be on the wane. The mercurial magician TC secured an unlikely win last season at VR, we pushed Wasps all the way at Twickenham at the beginning of the season, before a youthful Saracens side beat the Evil enemy in the micky mouse Anglo Welsh Cup.

Wasps are however still a magical side only having lost one game so far this season at Adams park against Leicester early on when Wasps don’t really bother. Last weeks HC destruction of the strongly tipped Irish province Leinster was in stark contrast to Sarries as they stuttered past a decent if limited Glasgow side.

So what of the weekends game? HRHRH & Chesney take a break after 7 consecutive games to allow David Seymour & Hugh Vyvyan some game time in what looks like a really quick Sarries back row, and they’ll have to be. The Gaffer has clearly decided that the breakdown is where the game will be won and lost, anyone lucky enough to see Ree’s and Haskell’s outstanding performance against Leinster will understand why. The direct head to head will also go some way to show if Skirving & Seymour really are the genuine article that many think they are against two players who have shown they are already comfortable on the international stage.

Several key players are rested for the trip to Wycombe, which perhaps indicates that the Gaffer thinks that the forthcoming home games against Quins and Bath deserve more focus than trying to overturn the dark magic of Adams park! Farrell continues at 12 and will be looking at making up for last weeks rusty display while Penny comes into outside centre. The other change sees Nick Lloyd replace Yates who drops to the bench for a well earned rest…

Saturdays game couldn’t be set up any better, two (formerly) local rivals battling it out for a top four place, a win for Wasps bunches things at the top, while if Saracens can conjure a win it would probably all but guarantee Saracens place in the play offs and at the same time condemn Wasps to miss out on the playoffs since… now that would truly be magical!