By Mark Huckerby
February 21 2005

Wasps went into Sunday’s clash with Northampton in desperate need of a victory. A Friday night win for Sale meant that the Sharks were five points ahead of Wasps in the fight for a home semi final place. Coming off the back of consecutive losses in the league, Wasps were targeting a return to form against the Zurich Premiership’s bottom placed team.

Touch Judge Lloyd Jackson set the tone for an afternoon of skill and excitement before kick off. He neatly avoided an embarrassing mid-pitch collision with a ballboy by executing a slick sidestep that Wasps debutant Paul Sackey would have been proud of.

Sackey started on the wing with Josh Lewsey switched to outside centre. Elsewhere Martin Purdy started in place of the injured Richard Birkett, and the late withdrawal of Trevor Leota meant that Phil Greening was handed the number two jersey.

Northampton failed to make the most of their possession in the opening stages, and a poor Shane Drahm drop goal effort, followed up by a sliced box kick from Johnny Howard demonstrated the Saints lack of ambition out wide. With five minutes gone Matt Dawson took a quick penalty. Good hands from Paul Sackey put Voyce into space and then a sublime dummy and a slipped pass from Simon Shaw set Josh Lewsey free. Northampton were forced to slow the ball down and Mark Van Gisbergen opened his account by slotting the resulting penalty.

A few minutes later Shane Drahm took advantage of some good Northampton pressure to level the scores but then Wasps started to open up in attack. Determined to put some spark into the Wasps backline, Alex King made a neat half break and good interlinking from both props resulted in a scrum on the Northampton twenty-two. Excellent ball carrying from Worsley and Lewsey stretched the Saints’ tryline defence, but Van Gisbergen’s poor pass wasted a try scoring opportunity.

With nineteen minutes gone Lewsey produced a speculative kick, which appeared to have bounced harmlessly for Bruce Reihana. Confused by the pitch markings however, Reihana managed to make a mess of the situation, consequently handing Wasps a 5m scrum. The Northampton pack crumbled as the Wasps scrummage rediscovered the power of recent seasons. Dallaglio took a quick tap from the resulting penalty, and though held short, Matt Dawson was on hand to touch down for the opening try.

Van Gisbergen converted to make the score 10-3 and 5 minutes later he was on hand to put Tom Voyce in the corner for his first try. The move was started after strong running by Erinle, and quick hands by Dawson from the resulting ruck sent Van Gisbergen through the stretched Saints defence. He found Tom Voyce who strolled in to make the score 15-3.

Dawson’s speed of pass at the breakdown proved to be a feature of the game, as did the appearance of Simon Shaw in almost every good passage of Wasps play. Shaw looked back to his rampaging best today and on 27 minutes he got up in the face of Blowers forcing a knock on from the Kiwi. However the resulting Wasps pressure came to nothing once more with Alex King’s pass straying slightly forward as Worsley threatened to add a third try.

Two minutes later though Northampton were gathered under their own goalposts once more. After a number of phases with little sign of any attacking intent Northampton resorted to throwing a series of loose passes. Phil Greening latched on to one such pass and pinned his ears back. Memories of Greening’s solo effort against Bath in the Parker Pen Final came to mind as he outpaced several Saints defenders. Making use of his Sevens experience, Greening waited for support and offloaded well to Tom Voyce who slid over for his second try. Van Gisbergen converted, 22-3.

With just over half an hour gone Northampton effectively admitted defeat as they replaced both halfbacks. By replacing the unpredictable but often brilliant Shane Drahm with the steady boot of Paul Grayson Northampton were settling in to play the percentages and hope for a second half Wasps display to match that of England against France. A deliberate knock on and chat to the referee from Paul Sackey gave Grayson the opportunity to slot 3 points, and the sides went in at halftime with the score 22-6.

A further Grayson penalty shortly after the restart made it 22-9, but this was as close as Northampton would get. Even Northampton’s most potent attacking threat Bruce Reihana resorted to kicking away possession, underlining the lack of confidence surrounding the Saints team. Dallaglio fielded the loose ball and carried it up to the Saints twenty two. After yet another penalty offence at the breakdown, David Rose finally lost patience and Matt Lord was made to pay for his team’s transgressions with a trip to the sin bin.

Wasps then wasted a sustained period of pressure allowing Reihana to clear from the turnover. However the Saints wing Paul Diggin pulled up with what looked to be a tight hamstring as he chased the clearance. Play was allowed to continue and Wasps pressed home their two man advantage with Van Gisbergen scoring after some fluid handling. This secured the bonus point for Wasps and Van Gisbergen added the conversion to bring the score to 29-9.

However it was not all good news. Alex King and Johnny O’Connor both limped off the field to be replaced by James Brooks and Tom Rees. O’Connor turned an ankle which could make him a doubt for Ireland’s clash with England next week. Diggin also hobbled off to be replaced by former Wasps wing John Rudd.

Three further Wasps substitutions with twenty minutes remaining saw Peter Richards, Rob Hoadley and George Skivington enter the fray. Matt Dawson gave way to Richards after arguably his slickest performance in a Wasps jersey, whilst Shaw and Lewsey both appear to have rediscovered their form of last season.

With so many changes and with the points effectively wrapped up for Wasps, the match quickly descended into a farce. Simon Emms attempted to give Tim Payne a ballroom dancing lesson off the ball, much to Payne’s surprise as he seemed to be expecting the Northampton prop to actually try and punch him.
Then Wasps began to throw the ball around in an effort to play some free flowing rugby. Unfortunately however, despite creating some excellent chances through the likes of Peter Richards, Wasps conspired to hand Northampton territory and possession through a string of errors. Northampton were unable to take advantage of Wasps generosity though as they contributed their own series of knock ons.

With a number of England sevens stalwarts on the field Wasps continued to throw speculative passes, so it was ironic that it should be a former Wasp player’s intercepted pass that led to Wasps’ fifth try. Van Gisbergen latched onto Rhino’s pass and set off upfield before finding Tom Voyce on hand once more and Voyce secured his hat-trick in style. Van Gisbergen slotted the conversion as Voyce’s personal sponsor was announced for the third time over the PA system, much to the delight of their marketing department.

Three minutes later Van Gisbergen rounded things off with his second try to make the final score 39-9 to the home side. In the dying minutes an announcement came over the PA system asking the Saints team coach driver to please return to his vehicle. I cannot shed any light on what the problem was but I suspect that, much like Northampton’s domestic season, the wheels had well and truly fallen off.

Man of the Match: Tom Voyce with his hat-trick, but the award could have gone any number of Wasps players. It is just fantastic to see the team working so well as a unit once again.