For second week in succession they were grateful to the boot of Adrian Jarvis for a late penalty and a league bonus point.

It was Wasps who had the first opportunity to score as they were awarded a penalty in the second minute of the match for an offence at a ruck, but Van Gisbergen’s kick hit the post and bounced away. Thereafter Quins applied strong pressure for almost the remainder of the first half, keeping Wasps penned in their own half of the pitch. The pack was playing with care and strength, retaining the ball and driving around the fringes.  When the ball came out Quins were clearly ready and willing to use it.

A scrum, fifteen metres short of the Wasps’ line on the left, allowed Quins to maintain and increase pressure and that ultimately resulted in an easy penalty kick for Jarvis to open the scoring after nine minutes. Continued pressure brought a Wasps line-out only ten metres short of their line.  Jim Evans stole the ball at the throw and lunged for the line only to have the ball deliberately knocked out of his hands by a Wasps’ centre.  The yellow card and penalty which should have followed this infringement did not follow.  Instead Quins had a scrum for a knock-on and was the first of numerous curious refereeing decisions which affected the game and its result.

A superb solo break and run by Mike Brown was stopped just short of the line by a decisive tackle from the Wasps’ winger Bishay and Brown’s  pass out of the tackle was intercepted denying Quins the try.  A further good break by Brown and good forward play kept Wasps pinned back.  The forwards were driving well round the fringe and when the ball was moved right quickly through the hands and chipped through for the Quins’ winger to run onto, desperate kicking out by Van Gisbergen saved the day.

Sooner or later Quins were bound to penetrate and cross the Wasps’ line.  It was a move started by Deane and continued by Stuart Abbott which succeeded as the centre’s inside pass put Simon Keogh on a superb angled run to the left corner for the try.  Jarvis added the conversion from the touchline, the ball striking the right hand pst and going through for Quins to lead 10 – 0.

From a penalty for not rolling away in the tackle Wasps made a foray into the Quins twenty-two where a good kick gave them the line-out.  However, Quins turned over the ball and play again moved back into the Wasps half of the pitch.  Continued pressure brought Quins another easy penalty from short range which Jarvis duly slotted through to increase the lead to 13 – 0 just after the half-hour.

There followed another example of apparently unseeing officials both on the touchline and in the middle as an assault on Vos, off the ball, necessitated his leaving the field to staunch the resultant blood and be substituted by Tom Guest.  As the half ended Quins conceded a kickable penalty and Van Gisbergen opened Wasps’ account so that the half-time score was 13 - 3. 

If Harlequins and their supporters believed the second half was to follow the pattern of the first half, they were sadly mistaken.  Wasps had no intention of permitting anything of the sort and came out with determination and pace.   Then the next refereeing error changed the course of the game as a blatant knock-on in the tackle by Wasps as they broke into the Quins twenty-two was ignored and instead they were awarded a penalty for an offside. The kick was successful and  a minute or two later, when Mike Brown picked up a ball apparently outside of  a ruck Quins were penalised again. Van Gisbergen had added another 6 points to the score. 

A punch on Volley long after the ball had gone should have seen Erinle shown a red card but instead he was only shown a yellow card. However, Wasps continued to attack and a run by the lock, Leo, ended with Haskell breaking away to score.  At the same time Abbott was shown a yellow card for an offence which he clearly did not commit.  The refereeing continued to be idiosyncratic.  Wasps were in the lead at 13 – 16. after fifteen minutes of the second half.

Quins attempted to increase the pressure.  Gomarsall, injured, was replaced by So’oialo.  Fine runs by Tom Williams and Mike Brown came to nothing.  Then a quick moving Wasps attack created a two man overlap on the right and Bishay crossed for the try which Van Gisbergen converted to increase the lead to 13 – 23 with fifteen minutes remaining.

Quins sought to impose some pressure and a deliberate knock-on by a Wasp as they attacked produced a penalty with six minutes remaining and Jarvis duly kicked to bring Quins to a losing bonus score at 16 – 23. 

In the remaining time Wasps pressed hard to deprive Quins of that bonus point and the defence did sterling work holding them up twice on or over the try-line.  At the resulting five-metre scrum Wasps had a penalty.  Dallaglio called for another scrum only to have Wasps penalised for an offence in the set-piece allowing Quins to clear to touch and the final whistle to be blown.

At the press conference after the match Dean Richards was clearly unhappy, saying “"I am bitterly disappointed. We were 13-3 up at half-time, but then we went out for the second half and our tactical nous was virtually zero. We scored a great try in the first half, but we didn't take all our chances, which was disappointing.  In the second half we did not play in the right areas of the field.”

Dean Richards refused to criticise the referee merely saying “It is fair to say that the referee missed a few things. Referees have their off days and perhaps he did not have one of his better days today.”   Asked about the yellow card for Abbot, he said that he thought it might be a case of mistaken identity since the person whose tackle was late did not have blond hair.

Harlequins: M Brown; T Williams (C Amesbury 78), M Deane, S Abbott, S Keogh, A Jarvis, A Gomarsall (S So'oialo 51), C Jones, T Fuga J Hayter 78), R Nebbett, O Kohn, J Evans (N Spanghero 66), A Vos (T Guest 39-40), P Volley (captain), C Hala'ufia  (M Lambert 66). Yellow card  Abott 54 mins. 

Wasps: M van Gisbergen; C Bishay, F Waters, J Brooks (A Erinle 44), T Voyce, A King (J Staunton 76), M McMillan(S Amor 55); A McKenzie, J Ward, N Adams (P Bracken 69), D Leo (R Birkett 58), G Skivington, L Dallaglio (captain), J O'Connor (J Hart 66),  J Haskell. Yellow card: Wasps: Erinle 50 mins.

Referee: M Fox (Leicestershire).

Attendance: 12700

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