By Loose Head
April 13 2003

Wasps again put together a performance based on forward power and a solid defence to come out having built on the home advantage of the first leg of the Parker Pen Cup semi-final to give a 15 point margin to take to the second leg. Bruising on the pitch and noisy off the pitch. What should the headline be?

Wasps contain Ponty in part 1 of the semi-final

Or

Wasps and Ponty battle it out – despite the ref.

Or

Why did all the Ponty fans crowd into one end of the terrace rather than spread out a bit?

Or

Will they keep singing that song all night?

Or

Bar manager builds huge extension with the profit from one visit from Ponty

Nothing has quite happened like it at Adams Park before. An early arrival of a fleet of coaches from South Wales coupled with a late kick off made for a very colourful afternoon. Overshadowing the tourists was the prospect of it being their club's last awayday before the changes are rung in Wales.

The game lived up to expectations, with both sides committed in the tackle. Wasps' policy of playing adventurous physical forward play continued. A chance for points from a penalty at about 12 minutes was turned down and the kick for touch chosen. The resulting 5m lineout had ball secured and the now expected Wasps driving maul was on. Ponty was ready and drove Wasps back. The Wasps forwards realigned, drove again, peeled right and broke off down the narrow channel, and Craig Dowd forced himself over for the first try. Alex King converted.

The restart saw an almost immediate penalty to Ponty. The mind game was paramount and Ponty also spurned the 3 points to kick for touch. Again a close lineout, this time to Ponty. Catch and drive. Both sets of forwards had near perfect body positions to drive at the maul. Wasps' superior power meant that it was going nowhere. That little mind game was 1-0 to Wasps.

Wasps dominated position and were twice in try scoring distance – i.e. a few metres from the line – only for lack of support at the breakdown to result in a Ponty penalty.

A period of Ponty pressure was turned on its head when Howley pounced on a muffed pass and hacked on, there was a suspicion of a knock on by Wasps just prior to that, but the ref allowed play to continue. Howley chased the ball and was within the Ponty 22 when he hacked on again. His opposite number took him out of the game with the most absurd of off the ball tackles. A hacked on ball is difficult to retrieve cleanly, but the ref decided – probably fairly – that it was a penalty try and sin binned the Ponty scrummie for his trouble. An easy conversion for Alex King and Wasps were 14-0 up on 26 minutes.

A more baffling refereeing moment came when at a ruck in the Wasps half the ref signalled a penalty to Wasps and played advantage and then signalled a penalty to Ponty and played advantage. The Ponty fly half broke away, was poorly tackled and while Wasps were presumably wondering what was happening, he weaved through a scored an impressive try under the posts.

Wasps hit back immediately and after the restart get control at a ruck in the Ponty 22. Howley did a trademark show-and-go and got within an inch. Dowd in support claimed his second try of the day. With a Ponty penalty on 40 minutes, points were taken to give a half time score of Wasps 21 Ponty 10.

And STILL the Ponty fans sang.

The second half started off physical and frantic, with errors – forced and un-forced – giving it a scrappy feel compared to the first half. The referee's decisions were all over the shop. Both sides' fans agreed that the ref wasn't biased, he just lost the plot. It seemed at one point that it might get nasty. Exchanges of penalties had the score with ten minutes to go at Wasps 27 Ponty 16.

A moment of brilliance from Dallaglio as he burst down the right wing, handing off tacklers before shipping the ball in the tackle. Rudd was put in enough space to blast through the remaining defence to score under the posts, giving Alex King another easy conversion.

Time all but up, a penalty to Ponty had to be kicked for goal, which was successfully done, hopefully for Ponty giving them a manageable deficit for the second leg in just under a fortnight's time. The final score was Wasps 34 Ponty 19.

And STILL the Ponty fans sang.

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Loose Head