The game started with an intriguing kick off, Tigers Forwards were all aligned to the left until just before the whistle went, they all then went right which must have been pre-ordained but must have been marginally unsettling for Wasps. The start went well for Tigers with and keeping the ball alive and quite often through an inside pass was the order of the day. Goodey released Castro who broke through and chose to ignore the pass to Herring inside and boshed Josh who manfully brought hime to ground, howls of anguish and only 1 minute on the clock! There followed 15 minutes of nigh on total domination, wonderful recycling and close quarter skills made ground but the Wasps defensive line was superb. After another prolonged bout of pressure Wasps made their first real error and were caught well offside at a scrum in front of the posts.

Goodey made it 3 – 0 which seemed scant reward for all that possession. I was however pleased that we had not had to weather a strong Wasps start or indeed submit to a morale sapping early score. Wasps first lineout was well stolen by Deacon and this will not have helped their confidence on this dodgy part of their game in recent times. Of the much anticipated clash of the 8s, Cozza was fast and direct and Lol looked well off the pace.

Wasps then started to edge into the game and played fast, recycling the ball quickly. Cipriani spotted Tom V out of position and arced beautifully to score on the left. He then converted from wide out to rightfully draw the expected plaudits from the commentators even if I expect these were pre-written.

Tigers then repeated the previous medicine and drove upfield to draw Wasps offside again and Goodey slotted over to take the score to 6 – 7.

Wasps kicked out on the full and from the lineout Castro charged taking the obligatory 3 Wasps for a walk. A knock on lead to a Wasps scrum in their own 22m Reddan broke wonderfully and released Sackey who made no mistake in scoring wide out on the right. The conversion was missed but my nerves were beginning to set in, we had most of the possession, most of the territory and Wasps had 2 clear chances and scored two well taken tries.

Tigers were then far more direct and made ground by keeping the ball alive and running straight. Ben Herring then broke and shanked his kick to the space behind Sackey where Tom V was racing up to, Sackey managed to get a boot to the ball for another attacked to fizzle out. Scrum to Tigers, Ellis looks to go to the wide open side then passed back into Johne who burst through the blinside’s tackle and offloaded inside for Goodey to cut a great angle to go over and round under the posts to ease his conversion. 13 – 12, that’s more like it. Even then Wasps swept up field to narrowly miss out on another score on the right only to give away a penalty for handling on the deck.

Half time.

Good start, the defensive wall is up fast and flat and forces a penalty for not releasing. Goodey spotted a gap, tapped and went and passed to the Hippo who looked turbocharged until you realised it was poor old Lol he was up against. Outside ball to Tom V who was at about half pace, drew Sackey and then passed inside to Rambo to go over. Goodey added the extras for 20 – 12. Cipriani then missed a pretty difficult penalty which could have lifted Wasps as they did not seem capable of getting over our 22m line. Then a piece of Goodey magic as he chipped delicately over the rush defence and collected the kind bounce, drew the man and released the Hippo who scorched through to score under the posts for a hammer blow score. With the extras it was 27-12. Sackey then scored wide out right, again we were outflanked. 27 – 17.

The nail truly went into the Wasps coffin when further driving play left Castro high stepping and wondering whether the whistle had gone, what other reason could there be for the lack of tacklers. Bloody good job he didn’t drop it during the theatricals!

Wasps came back again with another long distance try with Sackey providing an excellent draw and inside pass to Cipriani.

I would love to know what Lol said to Julian at the end of the game but it certainly wound him up.

In summary this was a fantastic game a full 80 minutes of the best rugby we have played for a long while. Alex is still trying too hard in attack but defensively he, along with the rest of the team are approaching where we need to be but we let in 4 tries. I can’t wait to see next week’s game. Oh yes, one hour 45 to go.

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