By Razcal with Raz junior
December 28 2002

If you went to Leeds, Sale , Bristol or London Irish you will know what I mean. Going into the last quarter Tigers led 13-9 Wasps had a man in the bin. Time to close the game, cut out the errors and grind out a win. Ah, for four seasons you would have put your mortgage on it but not this year.

To the match. One of the delights of following our team is the game you play during the hour before kick off. It is called guess the team sheet. Chuter, Vesty and Tierney came out 80 minutes before kick off. Ah , Sam at 10 and Tierney at 9 we thought. We also thought, uncharitably, lets hope we see Dorian soon. Gradually in twos and threes the squad came out to warm up in front of us. Our spirits lifted immensely when Tim Stimpson strode out and when Josh Kronfeld ambled out followed by Neil Back we became positively optimistic. But then a quick head count. 22 out and no Austin, no Corry and no Geordan. Our two game breakers missing together with the physical presence in the back row you need to counter the strongest part of the Wasps' side. The biggest surprise , was to see John Holtby starting at 14 ahead of Raynor with no Booth in the squad. Having seen Holtby on a few occasions in different contexts I am not surprised that he has been given a chance but it is a big ask of someone so inexperienced to start away to Wasps in a make or break game. Then someone pointed out that Neil Back was wearing black shorts which meant he would not start. DenIse and Mike Hill particularly questioned the choice of Harry over Tom to start at 9 but I cheerfully informed them that Harry is considered by Deano to be the most physical of our scrum halves and must have been selected to stand up to their back row. On top of all this Jelly starts at 1 with Franck on the bench. Has he been giving away too many penalties?

The fans were in fine voice and there were lots of us. The locals were proud of their first sell out but didn't seem able to make the connection that the vast travelling Tiger army had something to do with the "Sold Out" signs.

Wasps kicked off and immediately the pattern for a scrappy game was set. Tigers fielded the ball untidily and eventually got it back to Sam Vesty any old how, Sam picked his spot down the touchline and aimed for it. The ball bounced a long way short of its target in row 10 by the 50 metre line. However, the Wasps winger in attempting to field the kick on the third bounce merely helped it into touch. A good driving maul followed the line out and Darren broke up the blind side only to be just collared into touch. But this was a false portent. I am able to comment with authority on most of the first half because it was played out close to the try line I was sitting behind. Unfortunately, this was the line Tigers were defending. Two line outs later Tigers won ball in their own 22. A poor pass to Vesty caused him to hesitate in the face of the onrushing Wasps defence and then his dithering was ended by Kafer taking a short pass off him at walking pace, making the worst of a bad,situation he then turned the ball over. The main plus factor for us then emerged. Tigers defended their line in the face of a determined assault well. However, the referee spotted an infringement away from the main action but in front of our posts. 3-0 to Wasps.

I was reminded of the good old days of reciprical penalties when Stimpson was offered a realistic sight of goal a few minutes later. Unfortunately, this time there was too much drift on the ball to give any part of the wood work an opportunity to help.

Junior's match notes record a series of knock ons and missed kicks to touch which are returned. The play continues to be scrappy though taking place nearer and nearer the Tigers 22. Mr. Pearson continually penalises both sides for going into rucks and mauls from the side. He speaks to both captains and obviously issues a warning. As Stopsy would say this is preferable to the usual sight of captains speaking to the referee. However, both captains seemed confused as Mr. Pearson appears to have his own unique interpretation of this rule which he isn't sharing with anyone. Wasps back row players continue to be allowed to circumnavigate rucks and mauls with impunity but no one is allowed to protect the ball at the base of rucks and mauls. The upshot of this is that Harry has a torrid time at scrum half as he is constantly collared by Dallaglio or has to play ball that would not be out if it were protected. Dallaglio is allowed to lean on players who are on the ground to collar Harry but it is up to us to clear him out.The pattern of the match is not developing in our favour as Wasps dominate territorially. Knock ons are interspersd with poor kicks from hand.

Craig Dowd then demonstrates how you get to be the most penalised player in a season. Not sensing that Pearson is clearly very tense at being on tele and determined to show who is boss Dowd decides to ask for clarification about a penalty awarded against him at a scrum and is penalised 10 metres for dissent. If he doubles his penalty count like that it is no wonder he gave more penalties away last season than any other premiership player!

Then against the run of play Tigers score a good try. Kronfeld picking the ball up at the base of a ruck/maul thing inside his own 22 breaks through the cover tackle and then finding himself behind the Wasps defensive line he simply runs straight making it easy for any support to reach him. That support turns out to be Harry who takes a simple pass on the half way line and then promptly sets off at the speed of light for the corner which he reaches impressively just before the Wasps cover. Stimpson converts from the Paris position and we all cheer up. 7-3 ahead , now perhaps this will kick start them. Don't you believe it.

King is increasingly troubling our defensive line. He makes several half breaks with no Backy, Corry or Moody to cut him down. Then he makes a clean break from inside his own half , skinning several Tigers. But , instead of running straight he senses the Tiger cover pulling him back and ignores the two players either side of him up in support and criminally runs across the pitch , away from his support and into trouble. What a let off! He compounds this with a penalty miss from in front of the posts shortly after. Could this be our day we start to hope? Next Holtby , in extremis, tackles a Wasp who is clean through with 6 metres to go. Then just before half time King converts another penalty from in front of the posts and Balding becomes the scapegoat Pearson has been looking to send to the bin for coming in from the side. Stimpson is offered a penalty shot in injury time and we go into half time leading 10-6 but not quite knowing how.

Freddie is replaced at half time by Gelderbloom who goes to outside centre with Smith going to the wing. "We need first score this half," I cheerfully tell junior ,"then they will be on the back foot." No sooner are the words out of my mouth than a series of Wasp phases takes the ball from kick off to in front of our posts and King drops an intelligent goal. 10-9. Balding returns from what seems a brief 10 minutes. King tries a repeat drop goal but misses the post by the width of a ball. Pearson continues to demonstrate his erratic grip by instructing a scrum to "Crouch hold and engage" while Harry who is supposed to put the ball in receives treatment half a pitch length away. The injury is serious enough to force him off and Tierney comes on. From the play Tigers actually launch enough phases to threaten the line and Leota blatantly kills the ball 5 metres out. I refuse to use the term "professional foul". it was cheating. I am near enough to the ref for him to hear my instruction "In the bin" and off Leota goes for 10 minutes. The line out catch and drive is defended with the expedient of Dallaglio clearly holding Ben Kay down then protesting to the ref that Ben Kay was up to no good. Another Tiger penalty follows from the next phase and Stimpson takes the 3 points. 13-9 up going into the last quarter and Wasps down to 14 men. Time to make them pay don't you think?

So do we secure the kick off and kick down to the Wasps half to play territory, exert pressure and say try and score from 70 yards then ? No. We let the kick off bounce around and then be collected by the Wasps forwards who set up two quick phases and release the ball to Lewsey who cuts inside with a good change of pace to score near enough to the posts to make the conversion a formality. It was a good try but our defence which up to then had looked solid appeared to have gone to sleep. Neil Back and Franck Tournaire come on for Will Johnson and Derek Jelly. Dowd has been replaced following an ankle injury. 13-16 didn't look too good but there was plenty of time left. Plenty of time though for Wasps to show us how a game should be closed down. Tigers concede another penalty in front of the posts. 13-19. Vesty has a kick charged down and a scrambling Stimpson just prevents a killer try. Then, with ten minutes left Howley does what he has threatened to do all game. Picking up quickly from the base of a ruck he breaks up the openside of the ruck and scores from 20 metres out. The sort of try you eulogise about when one of your players manages it but the sort that certain players will wince at when they watch the video. 26-13 and game over.

We respond to some Wasp fans taunts of "You're not singing anymore" with our clap, clap clappy clap clap Tigers thing and we keep shouting our support as Tigers make desperate attempts to secure a losing bonus point. But the season was summed up in the last action of the match. A lineout to Tigers five metres out following a penalty is caught splendidly by Ben Kay who passes straight to Tierney while still at the top of his jump. Tierney appears surprised to receive the ball and knocks on. The final whistle blows, not just on the game but any faint hope of retaining our title.

So how did I feel after the game? Disappointed yes but not angry like one famous poster earlier this season. You could not blame the ref for the result or the bounce of the ball. We got what we deserved. Nothing. The main disappointment stems from it being so easy to see what is going wrong. The backs are standing too predictably flat. They are losing confidence and therefore knocking on or kicking badly out of hand. The forwards are not creating space for the backs by picking and driving. The answer to the Wasps back row yesterday was to pass the ball into them when they came round off side, or pick and drive into them in successive phases before releasing the ball. Dawson would have made sure Dallagio was penalised for coming over the top off his feet.Yes he is off his feet if he is leaning on other players who are on the ground.I watched the Treble video on Tuesday. Those same players who looked ordinary yesterday have shown in the past that they can run good lines, make the right decisions, produce blinding bits of instinctive creativity and execute basic skills well at pace. I winced when I got home and read Friday's Mercury to see Rod Kafer saying he had intended to play less and coach more this season. Frankly, the backs have gone backwards at a rate equal to his coaching input. Personally, I would like to see Les Cusworth coaching our backs. Kafer also says he sees the future as Ollie at 12 and Lloyd at 13. But the way I see it we have got ourselves into a rut and one master stroke will not change that. The usual scapegoats, Austin, Jamie and Leon were not playing yesterday so they get a day off from the flak. I will continue to go to away games because they are my team. I can survive the current poor spell by living off the wonderful memories from previous seasons. I would find it easier to accept the defeats if we started to blood more players like Holtby in preparation for a decent assault on the title next season.

Finally to the man of the match. For me it was Howley, for those who make the official award it was Abbott and the best of the Tigers was probably Martin Johnson. Happy New Year to all of you.