By Chris Chaplin
November 17 2004

Over the next month Tigers meet with Wasps on no fewer than three occasions with victories for Tigers likely to see them pull away at the top of the Premiership and proceed to the Quarter-finals of the European Cup.Defeats however would put a rather different complexion on things up at Welford Road. The match at Kingsholm last Friday, where Wasps achieved the rare feat of a team securing a win over the Cherry and Whites at Castle Grim, was a strange affair really.

In the first half Wasps seemed to have decided that they wouldn’t venture too far outside of their own 22, perhaps fearful of the wode painted hordes from The Shed assaulting them, preferring instead to treat the first forty minutes as defence practice as the depleted home side tried and tried again to breach the Wasps redoubt which held firm against an opponent that lacked a cutting edge or invention in attack with Gomersall, McRae, Henry Paul and Simpson-Daniel all absent.

Wasps pack also looked out of sorts in the first half with their line out work abysmal as poor Birkett and Shaw tried to field Greening’s haphazard throws. Even in the scrum the usually superb Craig Dowd looked below par and had it not been for some laissez faire referring by everybody’s favourite referee, poseur in chief, Steve Lander, the veteran All Black would have been repeatedly pinged.

Come the second half though Warren Gatland must have told his charges, while they sipped their Earl Grey, that they had misunderstood his instructions and that this was in fact a game they wanted to win after all!

Galvanized they stepped up several forward gears, well to be truthful they actually engaged forward gear for the first time, and put the disrupted and disorganised Cherry and White defence to the sword, running out winners by 27-17 having leaked tries to Balding and Amor against the run of play.

Up at Sixways the following day Tigers’ supporters basked in the sun of a lovely early Winter’s day and the shining play of the Tigers’ back division as they ran in six tries against a very poor Worcester Warriors, snaffling another try bonus.

Having seen Warriors against Newcastle and highlights of their victories over Brive and Quins, as well as their close run things against the Cherry and Whites and Bath, I was expecting much more from the Premiership newcomers but they hardly made a contest of it until Will Skinner was the recipient of a “team yellow card” late on and eventually a gap opened for Kirsty Gallagher’s boyfriend to score, the otherwise excellent Tom Varndell for once having got his defensive positioning askew.

With Wasps now in joint second place in the Premiership, just five points behind Tigers, a win for the Wycombe based side would see them share top spot and, given that Sale entertain Quins at home, there could be three sides on 36 points come Monday morning.

If injury and international absentee hit Gloucester can’t prevail over largely undepleted Saracens at Vicarage Road they would find themselves 11 points adrift of the top three with the need to secure three wins more than the leaders to overtake them – a tall order in this league.

By the same token if Tigers do take the points at The Causeway Stadium Wasps will themselves be losing touch with the top spot, although as we all know they have not yet ended the season as head honchos but have taken home the pot anyway.

In spite of their protests I bet they’d love to finish top and get the pot as well, a feat only achieved by one team since this play-off nonsense started, guess who that was? Correct - Leicester Tigers.

Against Warriors I thought the Tigers’ front row had a bit of struggle, not helped by part-time referee Ashton-Jones being well and truly conned by that old soldier Tony Windo who, while boring in, convinced the referee that Darren Morris was collapsing the scrum, even on Tigers’ ball!

On Sunday the British Lion will be opposing another player who knows every trick in the propping book, in fact I rather suspect he wrote the book, and while Craig Dowd is not yet back to his very best Morris will have a real battle from his berth on the tight-head.

It will be interesting to see what Gatland does at hooker with Wasps perennial problem in the lineout being there for all to see when they had real problems against the Cherry and Whites, even though Alex Brown was missing. Personally I’d try Ben Gotting if he’s back from injury. Less flashy in the backs than Greening and less eye catching around the breakdown than Leota but a good solid player who knows that as a hooker it’s the basics that have to be right first and foremost.

Young Cabbage Buckland is another good prospect for Tigers, with soundness in the scrum and around the park although he suffered a bit from a lack of options against Warriors with Gilles having worked out that Johnno and Deacon were going to be the first and virtually only options the Scot put pressure on Buckland’s throw, which went a bit awry at times – although nothing as severe as the demonstration from Greening who had plenty of options, it was just that he mostly missed them!

On the other side of the Wasps front row Tim Payne started against Glaws but I thought the front row looked more cohesive once Will Green took over.

Tigers started Holford, who had been parachuted in from Bedford, and he did OK but again once another paratrooper, Colin Noon, appeared late on the Tigers’ front row looked more solid and I hope that against either Payne or Green the experience of Noon will be brought to bear.

The front row outcome will in the end depend on how the contest between Morris and Dowd pans out and how the officials choose to referee Dowd’s technique. Personally I think it likely that Tigers will again find themselves under a bit of pressure.

In the second row I thought that, in spite of his scoring a smashing try, Simon Shaw was a little quiet and for me the often under rated Birkett stole the show from his more famous partner with some great play in the loose and some astonishing athleticism in the line out as he went every which way trying to field Greening’s throws.

Johnno and Deacon started for Tigers with Louis Deacon relishing his opportunity after being broken by England a few weeks ago, however as mentioned earlier, with the younger Deacon, Brett, starting with Martin Corry on England duty, the Tigers’ options at the line out were very limited and I would like to see Will Johnson start at 6 in company with Tuilagi and Back.

Wasps will have the excellent O’Connor and sign language expert Joe Worsley missing on international duty so I’d expect lock John Hart who started against Gloucester, to keep his place. Now while Hart is not a top class flanker he’s good enough and of course with Dallaglio gives Wasps plenty of options in the lineout.

The player that caught my eye though was young 20 year old Tom Rees who was making his first Premiership start of the season and looks a real prospect. On Sunday he’ll be able to test himself against the master.

Looking at the packs I expect to see Wasps edge the scrums but if things don’t change it’s possible that their Achilles heel in the lineout could again haunt them and it’s hard to see their depleted back-row prevailing around the breakdown and they will have to cope with Henry Tuilagi in the loose much as will Tigers with Lol.

Scott Bemand scored a nice try against Warriors showing great pace over 40 metres with his service, presentation and kicking also good. Matt Dawson had one of those days when he was seemed to be auditioning to be the next Sir Malcolm Sargent and didn’t give his ex Northampton colleague James Brooks the best of times. In spite of this the newly shorn Brooks showed some good skill when Wasps went into attack mode and Alex King may have a bit of a job to unseat him if the fallen Saint goes on like this.

Andy Goode also had another fine day with the ball in hand although he’s yet to regain his imperious kicking form and I wondered again on Saturday whether he’s 100% confident of his non kicking leg as it looked to me as if he is over rotating his hip and deflecting the movement of his kicking leg.

Not much to choose between the two pairings at half back as far as I can see so both sets of centres should get some good go forward ball.

Daryl Gibson continued in his rich vein of form against Warriors with his organisation of the defence of the very highest quality with his aggressive attack and ability to keep the ball alive seeing the All Black playing some of his best rugby since arriving at Welford Road.

Regular partner of late, Seru Rabeni, limped off after 14 minutes and I think his injuries may have finally caught up with him as he certainly looked in poor shape when he left the field of pain on Saturday and without being overly pessimistic I’ve a feeling that we may not be seeing him for a while.

The Fijian try scoring machine was replaced by the talented 19 year old Matt Cornwall who fitted seamlessly into the play and unless, by some Andy Goode like miracle, Ollie Smith is fit earlier than expected, some five weeks having passed of the six that was expected to be the recovery period from his injury sustained at The Stoop, then young Cornwall will have to be the man I guess and we see how he looks in defence against the dangerous Wasps pairing.

Although Stuart Abbott played 25 minutes in Monday’s A Team victory over Bath he is not yet near to full match fitness and Fraser Waters is still out so in their absence the spectacular Ayoola Erinle will probably again partner converted #9 Peter Richards.

Erinle really is a powerful player as he demonstrated on Friday evening when, on one occasion, from a standing start he brushed off the, admittedly less than committed, Gloucester defenders, to score a lovely try.

Richards is a different sort of player and perhaps less instinctive than Erinle but the ex Bristol, London Irish and Quins player seems to have found his niche at Wasps and is rebuilding his career after having a reputation for a suspect attitude to the work ethic – no sign of that now! However he does tend to take the ball to ground with alacrity rather than getting it away either before or during contact so as to keep the move alive and on occasion looks hesitant in defence so I would expect new signing Rob Hoadley to appear sooner rather than later.

If Rabeni or Smith are, by some stroke of good fortune, fit then their experience, coupled with that of Gibson, should see the scales tip in Tigers favour however Matt Cornwall could find Erinle, in particular, too much of a handful when the big Wasp is coming forward but his defensive positioning can sometimes be found wanting so either Rabeni, Smith or Cornwall could find an opportunity to nip through the gap that Erinle sometimes leaves when he stands out of alignment.

Out wide the Tigers’ travelling multitudes at Sixways welcomed back Austin Healey who gave a virtuoso performance on his long awaited return from injury, making two tries and scoring one for himself.

Partnering everybody’s little favourite was a brand new star, step forward for a bow the 6’3”, 15 stone, 19 year old Tom Varndell, who scored a hat trick of tries, on one occasion simply running away from ex England international Paul Sampson. The Tigers back three was completed by Sam Vesty who had another solid game, yet again though I am left to wonder when Broadfoot will get his chance to bring his more inspiring style to the field.

Wasps back three against Glaws comprised Tiger-phobic Tom Voyce, ex London Irish youngster Edd Thrower and one of the best #15s around; Mark van Gisbergen.

I had puzzled how Tom Voyce, since his arrival at Wasps, had turned into such a predator and master of the intercept as I don’t remember him performing like that at Bath. The answer, I believe, is best gained by watching the Banana defensive line that Wasps adopt, not dissimilar to that which London Irish used to great effect when Dr Venter was in charge down at The MadStad. Now I would not presume to say that Voyce is most often offside in such circumstances and accept that he may have developed speed off the mark akin to a Formula One Ferrari but it’s worth studying – just for interest!

Thrower was a good promising youngster at London Irish but has blossomed since his arrival at Wasps where they certainly have a plethora of talented youngsters coming through the ranks with Mike Roberts another I think we should watch out for in the starting line up before too long.

Finally to van Gisbergen who’s Premiership record tells it all with 305 points from 51 Premiership appearances and no that’s not just due to his highly educated boot he’s also scored 8 tries. Tremendously dangerous in attack the ex Waikato fly-half doesn’t seem to get the plaudits that he deserves, well not outside The Causeway Stadium anyway.

Last time Tigers travelled to High Wycombe, in the dying days of last season, they destroyed Wasps but of course as we now know that was largely due to Wasps not being bothered whether they won or not! Lucky old Tigers eh?

I rather think they’ll want to win this one though and with Tigers still missing six of their first choice pack, as well as their scrum-half, and full-back, while Wasps have Worsley, O’Connor, Waters, Lewsey and Abbott missing from what would probably be their first choice starting fifteen it’s hard to see Tigers bringing home more than one point, although that would be enough to keep them top – not that it matters of course, Champions these days just have to finish in the top three!