By CathG
December 6 2004

Well nobody ever said it was easy being a London Wasps fan. Especially when you feel that we are playing against 16 (or was it 18) men? Leicester Tigers obviously came out of the traps faster and within 12 mins Wasps were 15 points down. Two tries (Moody, Murphy), one conversion (Goode) and one penalty (Goode) given for Wasps coming up in the scrum – of which more later - and we knew the enormity of our task. Wasps then began to benefit from the Leicester penalties (or maybe the ref started to notice them) and MvG slotted two between the sticks before Corry scored their third and final try. At this point Wasps still didn’t look like they had really woken up. Wasps 6 Leicester 22.

This was obviously a tight match (dubbed the Battle of Britain by some pundits and the first time two clubs from this country have ever met in the pool stages of the competition) but it seemed that a punch up began at every breakdown. I won’t have the opportunity to see a replay but I think someone should investigate those further…

On 23 mins, Harry Ellis was sent to the sin bin but the subsequent penalty was kicked to touch by Alex and no points gained.

On 26 minutes after some persistent play in the Leicester 22, Josh went over for a try and lifted the spirits of the Wasps faithful. Wasps 13 Leicester 22. Wasps then stole a line out on the Leicester 22 and another penalty took us to 16-22. On the stroke of 40 mins, Wasps were penalised again for popping up in the scrum and Leicester edged ahead again.

I am not an expert at scrum play but when it was pointed out that The Leicester front row lifted up at every scrum in our 22 and somehow Wasps got penalised. The officials seemed to be looking only for the first Wasps head to appear.

Wasps got the last points of the half when Leon Lloyd pushed Josh into touch (and the advertising hoardings) off the ball -- Wasps 19 Leicester 25.

Having been dressed down in the dressing room at half time Wasps came back out with more power and passion and were awarded three more penalties (killing the ball, pulling down in the line out and Josh taken out in the air and off the ball – Lloyd again) in 10 minutes although one went left of the posts bringing the game back level. Wasps 25 Leicester 25.

Leicester seemed willing to give penalties in the way in the pursuit of slowing the game down and were obviously frustrated by the scoreline. However, they were awarded two penalties in the next 10 minutes and they edged away again. Phil Greening hobbled off after a particularly nasty late tackle and was substituted by Ben Gotting. The line out was now secure and Leicester were penalised twice again in our 22. Wasps 31 Leicester 31.

After having drawn against Leicester only two weeks ago, a win was required but the ref seemed to miss further infringements by Leicester to give them a penalty on 77 minutes. And then 4 minutes later an Andy Goode dropped goal took them to 37 points. Wasps did not give up and attacked the Leicester 5 metre line for what seemed like an eternity. After three penalties awarded to Wasps, each of which was tapped and run, the ref was clearly heard on TV to tell Martin Johnson – one more and it’s a penalty try. However, another penalty was given (no, not a try) and Leicester managed to turnover the ball.

Final score Wasps 31 Leicester 37.

A very frustrating day for Wasps fans as the touch judges didn’t seem to be watching and supporting the ref (or maybe he wasn’t looking for their support). Even Dallaglio, Dawson and Johnson didn’t seem to be helping him that much! Do they still have microphones in their flags? If they do I haven’t seen them being used for some time.

Wasps remain top of the group thanks to a losing bonus point but they need to play the full 80 minutes next week at Welford Road.