By Jason Harris
April 11 2005

A rampant first half display from the reigning Premiership champions saw off a lacklustre Saracens 45-24, scoring five tries in the opening period to claim a try bonus and with it a certain place in the table's top two. Though Sarries won the second half 14-7, the damage was already done by Wasps. Right from the off, the Causeway Stadium crowd were treated to a display from the home side that few teams in the league would have lived with. Although Matt Cairns scored a try with a smartly-taken interception on 10 minutes, the rest of the opening period was all one-way traffic as Wasps varied their play and bagged a bonus point before the sides changed ends.

Two tries from wing Paul Sackey, his second a brillian in-and-out move when faced with a one-on-one situation with opposite number Ben Johnston, one from Joe Worsley, another from Tom Voyce after Ayoola Erinle intercepted a hopeful Cairns pass and a top-drawer step and go from Erinle himself put Wasps way over the horizon before Sarries knew what had hit them. Fullback Mark van Gisbergen had a perfect six from six in the first half with the five conversions and an early penalty.

With set piece and defensive dominance, the Wasps backs, marshalled by Alex King, mixed their play and with short or long passes, his threquarters and back row cut the Saracens defense to shreds time and again.

Effectively, it was game over at 38-10, but Sarries made some notable changes at half time with the introduction of Kevin Sorrell for an off-colour Dan Harris and Mosese Rauluni for Kyran Bracken who was having a torrid time against arch-nemesis Matt Dawson.

The second half was better for the Men in White as Sorrell latched onto a rare Nickly Little break early on to race 40 metres for the score with Little adding the extras and Richard Hill, making his first senior appearance six months making the score 38-24 with his Little-converted try. Sarries were now sensing that if they could get one more converted score, they would be in for two priceless bonus points to aid their quest for automatic Heineken Cup qualification.

It wasn't to be, however. A couple of chances went begging and one potential score - with Sarries enjoying a three-on-one overlap - was ruled out by referee Steve Lander for forward pass.

Wasps, who, like most of the sell-out Causeway crowd, had seemingly lost interest, put the final nail in the Sarries coffin late on with a Worsley try from a neat short pass by reserve fly half James brooks and Van Gisbergen finished a 100% day with the final conversion.

Afterwards there were no complaints from Sarries coach Steve Diamond as he admitted the much better side won and reckoned that the team would learn more from watching the video of this defeat than ones from games where Sarries have won narrowly.

Diamond now thinks that - with two very tough games remaining against Leicester and Gloucester - the way into the Heineken Cup will be the Wildcard Playoffs. But if results go their way and they get at least one more win, an automatic passage into Europe's premier club competition is still within their reach.

Wasps: Tries Worsley 2, Sackey 2, Erinle, Voyce; Conversions Van Gisbergen 6; Penalty Van Gisbergen. Saracens: Tries Cairns, Sorrell, Hill; Conversions Little 3; Penalty Little.

Wasps: M Van Gisbergen; P Sackey, A Erinle, J Lewsey (R Hoadley, 75), T Voyce; A King (J Brooks, 50), M Dawson (P Richards, 75); C Dowd (T Payne, 69), P Greening (T Leota, 69), W Green, S Shaw (M Purdy, 75), R Birkett, J Worsley, T Rees, L Dallaglio (capt; J Hart, 72).

Saracens: M Bartholomeusz; T Vaikona, T Castaignède, D Harris (K Sorrell, h-t), B Johnston; N Little, K Bracken (M Rauluni, h-t); K Yates (N Lloyd, 53), M Cairns (R Ibanez, 52), B Broster, S Raiwalui, I Fullarton (K Chesney, h-t), B Russell (R Hill, 46), D Seymour, H Vyvyan (capt).

Referee: S Lander.