Saracens
34 - Wasps 28
The
Wasps looked revitalised and certain to spice up their Saturday at
the London Double Header against the Saracens. Taking centre stage at
Twickenham, both sides ran out to an eagerly awaiting 66,164
spectators, poised and prepared for the showdown ahead.
It
looked like the Wasps were set to steal the limelight as they edged
one point ahead with a couple of minutes to go. But they fell at the
final hurdle, giving way to Man of the Match David Strettle, who
breezed over the line to bag his hat-trick, leaving the Wasps
red-faced, rueing, and hitting the self-destruct button for the third
consecutive year!
“If
you look at our first forty, it just wasn't good enough. We had
pretty much most of the territory, certainly all the possession...but
we failed to really cause them lots of problems first half...which is
the story of last season really.”
said Dai Young
All
conservative play was put to bed early on, with the Sarries back to
their old tricks. A fantastic flurry of handling skills and a
clinically executed loop from Charlie Hodgson put Chris Ashton in
good stead to score, only six minutes into the game.
I
started to fear the worst; were the Wasps in for the same thumping
Gloucester had been on the receiving end of the night before?
Not
exactly. When the Wasps did manage to gain possession, they looked
vicious on the attack, especially Elliot Daly who triumphantly
twirled and twisted his way out of tackles and down the pitch to the
roar of the crowd. But it only needed an ounce of error when the
Wasps were caught off-guard and flat on the attack, to enable an
interception, fuelling David Strettle's try.
Saracens
backed the Wasps into a corner on numerous occasions in the scrum,
preventing them from gaining any significant ground on the attack in
the first-half.
HT
Saracens 20 – Wasps 9
But
it didn't take long for the Wasps to sting in the second. They
needed to carve it up and they did.
A
beautiful break from Joe Simpson, whose line speed was phenomenal,
put the ball in the capable hands of Nathan Hughes for Wasps' first
try. The Sarries were subsequently penalised at the scrum for
pre-engaging and I suspect this was the turning point that enabled
the Wasps to take charge and attempt to turn the game around.
With
bullish ball carries in pod formation from both Ashley Johnson and
James Haskell and individual excellence from Nathan Hughes, it opened
up the floor to enable Christian Wade to score not once but twice!
With
the Wasps ahead with 20 minutes to play, Mark McCall put the onus on
Owen Farrell to make his mark and the Saracens responded. Yet again
it was the dominant David Strettle who sneaked around the corner of
the breakdown to score his second try of the game.
With
four minutes to go and with a scrum awarded to the Wasps, all I could
hear the captain James Haskell saying on the ref link was; “A
big scrum now” and
really that's all his boys needed to do to win the game - if they'd
kept possession - But they didn't!
And
the Saracens demonstrated their physical ability when it really
mattered, as Strettle proved, scoring his hat-trick when the Wasps
were down and out. Farrell converted on the final whistle and even
as a spectator, I felt like I'd been through two rounds with Mike
Tyson watching the Wasps.
Wasps
were their own worst enemy in parts as Dai Young quite rightly said
after the match;
“The
disappointing factor is then with three minutes to go, we had it in
our hands to win the game...”
FT
Saracens 34 - Wasps 28
Hat's
off to the Wasps. For 35 minutes of the second half they delivered -
and did some damage - but their inability to wake up and smell the
coffee in the first half was dismayingly detrimental to the overall
result.