By Ian Birks
November 21 2004

For the second time this season, the Tigers came back to earn a draw in the last few minutes of the game and gain two points towards their premiership tally. Leicester started the day in first place, and after Sale lost to Quins on Friday, it was up to Wasps to close the gap on the league leaders. The home side looked the stronger in the first quarter, with Edd Thrower making the Tigers pay for some early indiscretions, putting the Wasps into a 6-0 lead kicking his penalties in the 8th and 15 minutes.

Tom Varndell, fresh from a hat-trick performance at Sixways last week, was the first to cross the whitewash after a show-and-go that left van Gisbergen in his wake. Goode converted to give the Tigers the lead 6-7.

But it was not long before he Wasps hit back with interplay between Dallaglio and Dawson behind the scrum resulted in a try from van Gisbergen. The missed conversion was one of the misses hat would prove crucial in the final analysis and at half time Wasps went in with an 11-7 lead.

The second half was a scrappy affair and Thrower missed two difficult kicks that would have helped the Wasps cause come he final whistle.

Johnson, lucky to stay on after impeding Erinle, got a lecture from referee Ashley Rowden, but nothing more.

Thrower had two more successful shots at goal in the 58th and 63rd minutes, extending the Wasps lead to 17-7, but Goode kept the Tigers in contention with a long range effort from out wide which closed the gap to the all-important 7 points.

Again, Thrower missed a chance to seal the game in the 70th minute of play with another missed penalty kick. Leicester raised the tempo with a series of close-range line outs. Johnson and Gibson took the ball into the heart of the Wasps defence before the it was moved out to the blind-side and on to Healey who slid over in the corner after a darting, diagonal run.

Goode’s conversion levelled the score at 17-all in the 77th minute.

If you expected today’s game to give you some indication of how these teams will perform when they play each other in the European Cup in a few weeks time, hard luck.

After Round One it’s all square. The next time that these two teams meet will be on December 5th at the Causeway with a return leg the following Sunday at Welford Road.

If the next encounter ends in a draw, I am sure that Leicester will be far happier than Wasps to walk away with the two HEC pool points.

Wasps: Van Gisbergen; Thrower, Richards, Erinle, Voyce; Brooks, Dawson; Dowd, Greening, Green; Shaw, Birkett; Hart, Rees, Dallaglio (captain).
Replacements: Leota, McKenzie, Lock, Haskell, Biljon, Priscott, Hoadley.

Leicester: Vesty, Varndell, Cornwell, Gibson, Healey, Goode, Bemand, Holford, Buckland, Morris, M Johnson (captian), L Deacon, H Tuilagi, Back, W Johnson.
Replacements: Taukafa, Hampson, Hamilton, Montagu, Skinner, Dodge, Broadfoot.

Referee: Ashley Rowden (RFU)