By Sparkie
March 17 2003

A crowd of 8,912 at Vicarage Road witnessed a storming game and a Simon Shaw hat-trick as London Wasps took the spoils by five tries to four. Our robust forward parries saw off Sarries rapier thrusts after the hosts were 14-0 up inside seven minutes. Two weeks ago Newcastle served up a beggar's banquet at Adams Park that was as bleak as that on offer on the low table of the Magdalene Sisters. Yesterday's fare was a sumptuous banquet as Wasps forwards gorged themselves on five tries and Saracens backs countered with three of their own and made another for their England stalwart, Richard Hill. There were nine tries for Clive Woodward to feast his eyes on but do not expect to see Shaw in England's 22 to face Scotland -- Sarries former lock, the pugnaceous Danny Grewcock, is preferred over a multitasker for his "hidden" and not so hidden talents.

Wasps will want to forget the opening ten minutes after starting brightly but turning over the ball too easily -- a hangover from the Falcons game. Saracens took advantage of our handling errors with some astute tactical kicking. First Niki Little pinned Wasps back with a kick to our 22. Clearly Sarries wanted to keep play in our half. Although Wasps won the lineout a weak clearance went straight to Richard Haughton on our 10 metre line. He stepped inside, linked with fullback Tim Horan who fed Hill on a diagonal charge through the yellow sea. Not one Wasp laid a hand on him as he raced over from 35 metres. If we had known better then, we should have employed the catch and drive from the outset instead.

Wasps turned over more ball on Saracens 10 metre line and Horan immediately chipped our upfield cover. A fortunate bounce took the ball back into his path thus stranding Mark Van Gisbergen and the Australian veteran had enough gas to hack on and beat Josh Lewsey to the goal line in the seventh minute. At this rate Sarries would be out of sight by the second quarter with their intelligent use of not one but three stand-offs as Horan and Little interchanged with Thomas Castaignède.

Pragmatically Wasps did not buckle under early duress and chose to mix up the game plan among the backs and forwards. Our first sortie to the Saracens 22 ended in a penalty goal by Alex King as our playmaker started to turn the screw.

Saracens continued their aggressive defence of our rucks so King changed the pattern of the game by kicking a long-range penalty for the corner. The lineout was caught and driven on in two phases before the ball was switched to the blindside where Simon Shaw was lurking for his first touchdown of the afternoon. King added the extras from the touchline.

Saracens countered with a catch and drive of their own and Castanets almost escaped Wasps' drift defence as the ball was spun left down the line. Joe Worsley just managed to nab his man as Castanets ducked into contact -- little wonder the hit looked high. The ball was spilled to Fraser Waters who hared down the right wing before stalling to link up with Phil Greening. Play went through the phases before Andy Kershaw boshed his way to the five metre line before being felled near the left corner. Wasps failed to make further headway but a penalty back on the 22 was slotted by King to claw us back within a point of the hosts.

With the sides almost level pegging the next score would be crucial in the psychological stakes and it showed in some helter-skelter passages of play. Little tried a speculative dropped goal which was charged down and Wasps ran it back to halfway where an overlap was spurned by our over eager Sevens specialist, Greening. The ball was turned over by Sarries and Haughton almost escaped down his wing. Wasps conceded a penalty rather than risking their lungs beyond bursting point and Castanets, bless him, kicked the ball dead.

Horan caught the kicking disease following a Sarries scrummage deep in their half. Mark van Gisbergen fielded the clearance on our ten metre line and ran a great line through the defence to the 22. The move was swept to the left and then to the right before the ball was popped from a ruck to that unstoppable man Shaw standing off close to Sarries' line.

King missed the conversion and Wasps offered the hosts more charity on the restart following a back row dust up involving Paul Volley. Little claimed the three points to put Sarries one behind. Half-time beckoned but there was still time for a touch of high-farce.

Horan attempted another chip-kick to probe for space but this time it was expertly trapped on the floor by Lawrence Dallaglio. The ball was quickly fed to King who returned Horan's tactic. Little back-tracked unhurriedly as Dallaglio was Wasps' only runner about 20 metres back. As the Samoan bided his time the ball bounced loose but it just eluded our captain's grasp in goal. Sarries only cleared 10 metres upfield in their haste. Wasps catch-and-drive rolled towards goal before Kershaw peeled off to score against his ex-team mates. 25-17 to Wasps at the halfway stage.

Four minutes after the resumption Wasps gave away our third or fourth free kick at a scrummage, we were not having an easy time of it. Kyran Bracken made us pay by taking a quick tap on our 10 metre line as soon as the front rows had disengaged and Castanets shimmied through a gap before he was missed and chipped van Gisbergen for a brilliant solo try.

Sarries yielded three points right from the restart, King kicking a simple penalty goal. Sarries were right under the cosh again soon afterwards. A penalty kick was awarded after King had missed a dropped goal attempt. This time we opted for the preferred catch-and-drive and Paul Volley burrowed over for the bonus-point try which was converted. It is worth noting that had King's dropped goal gone over then Saracens may have snagged a losing bonus point after all. They may even have gone on to draw or win the game. As it was they were not finished yet.

First Dallaglio had to be on his toes when forcing a sniping Bracken into touch. Then Sarries sucked in our defence with a driven lineout themselves. The ball was moved first to the left and then back to the right and a cut-out pass by Litte in midfield gave Haughton the time to force his way over the line despite the presence of van Gisbergen. Little's touchline conversion had the game poised on a knife's edge at 35-31 to Wasps with almost a full quarter remaining.

The final and decisive scoring move of the game came from another Wasps lineout. Shaw grabbed his hat-trick 12 minutes from time with a clever blindside sneak as Sarries' tired pack sought to disrupt the lifters. Variety on a theme is the spice of life.

The phalanx of replacements disrupted the flow of the game in the last quarter but there were two more attacks of note. First the hosts gave the dice one more roll just before full-time. Haughton raced down his wing to Wasps' 22 and won a penalty. A maul was driven to within 5 metres and another penalty was conceded. Wasps were in danger of conceding a penalty try. The scrummage option was taken by Sarries but sterling defence by the visitors denied them the losing bonus point. The ball squirted out of a ruck with Sarries fringing from an offside position. Finally Wasps cleared and Ayoola Erinle had time to cut against the grain and run deep into Sarries' territory before he was reeled in at no side.

Both sides put on a terrific performance in perfect running conditions. The defensive coaches will be having nightmares, particularly Sarries' lineout coach. When was the last time Wasps throwing in was perfect and four tries were scored from this troublesome set piece? Meanwhile down the road Irish surrendered to Quins and ended the day bottomed out in the Premiership. Leicester' s loss and Leeds continuing downward slide put the gloss on a great away day. Bath await on April 6 as Wasps have a big say in the top and the bottom places.

On today's showing at Vicarage Road, Sarries should scrap their way up the table without doubt. Otherwise they will be muttering about the cost of losing forwards of the calibre of Dean Ryan, Ben Clarke, Danny Grewcock and Tony Diprose to their rivals. These are the sort of players who should have Sarries written through them like a stick of rock. Small wonder that they had machinations on keeping our on-loan prop, Andy Kershaw, back in the autumn. The loosehead's towering performance in a Wasp shirt must have been another painful reminder of their pack's shortcomings this season. Roll on May...

Related Sportnetwork link: Sorries pushed around