By Loose Head
October 25 2004

As the cliché has it a game of two halves. First half error strewn with a lack of substance. Second half, still with errors, but more dynamism from Wasps. Biarritz will return to France wishing they had played like a French team. More remarkable than the Wasps performance was how poor Biarritz were.

Lost: One gameplan. Distinguishing features, a few French words written on the back of a packet of Gitanes. If found please post back to Biarritz Olympique rugby club.

The Biarritz coach is said to be a video junkie, studying every scrap of tape in order to determine his opposition's weakness. This appears to have been their downfall. Instead of playing their game and taking the fight to Wasps they played a strange long range kicking game - and did it very badly. Wasps even got a scrum from the Biarritz 22 as a result of a kick going dead.

The first half was a trade of penalties and drop goals. It may sound dull but there were some notable moments. Alex King is breaking the defence superbly and set Voyce up for a try in the corner after only 2 minutes. Sadly, Voyce's feet were in touch.

Biarritz were content to push Wasps back with kicks and hope. Quite what they hoped for I am not sure, maybe a knock on, or Van Gisbergen running back and getting isolated. It was clearly a plan because they tried it so often. It was also a plan that didn't work. A crunch moment came at 26 minutes. With the scores at 3-3, Biarritz had a penalty wide out but on the Wasps 5 metre line. They opted to pop the ball into touch to have the lineout. They caught and drove, but Wasps drove them backwards. The ball came out of the maul and Traille managed to get a drop goal for Biarritz. The Wasps pack had asserted their dominance.

Another exchange of penalties occurred. Just when the casual observer was thinking that Josh Lewsey was not marking his return from injury with his best game, he made a superb break. Off his wing, taking the ball through the centre, he somehow found a route through using his pace and strength only to be brought down within sniffing distance of the line. Biarritz went offside at the ruck killing the game. Yet another penalty.

The first half ended with the score 9-12. Not much to show for all the effort. Mainly due to the absurdly high handling error count - at some points running at 1 per minute for Wasps alone. If Wasps could sort out the errors they could view the second half with some confidence.

However, the second half started much as the first had finished. But Wasps started to get the taxi meter clicking over on the scoreboard. First a penalty goal due to Biarritz crossing, then after another penalty a lineout and scrappy drive followed by a drop goal from Alex King. Wasps had nosed in front.

The lack of ambition and flair from the visitors was as relieving as it was frustrating to watch. The frustration was building on the pitch as the penalty count rose and rose. Yet another ruck - yet another penalty. At 59 minutes the ref had had enough and sent Betsen to the bin for 10 minutes. Craig Dowd received a huge cheer as he joined the pitch after months out of the game. His effect was immediate. A break was started by Josh. The forwards got their hands on it and you then saw the extra driving power that Dowd brings to the team. Out the ball went wide only for Van Gisbergen this time to be stopped within sniffing distance. The ruck was controlled by Wasps and a pop to Worsley coming at pace had him bursting over the line for a try. Van Gisbergen's conversion made the score 25-12.

Wasps kept pressing and had a few scoring chances, misfortune and good old fashioned muffed passed stopped them. There was a strong contender fro a penalty try when Voyce found a line straight through the defence and was delivered the ball with the try line wide open. The ref says this was another handling error as the ball went to ground. I thought it looked like Voyce being tackled before he got the ball.

Fraser Waters made a cameo appearance. It was good to see him on the pitch at all. Even though his only activity was to walk off a minute later when the game ended with a Wasps win.

The scoreline reflects fairly accurately the game: first half a pretty lame 9-12; second half a much more respectable 19-0.