By Sparkie and GD
November 4 2002

Come December it will be five years since Leicester lost in the league at home. That was the measure of the task facing Wasps on Saturday. The way to beat them had been signposted all right. Both of Bristol's recent wins against Tiggers and also our '95 cup triumph pointed the way. The elements won in the end, though.

The result harks back to the early days of league rugby in the late eighties when Wasps twice got there or thereabouts up at Leicester without ever quite pulling a white rabbit out of the hat. So it proved to be once more. Leicester's once pre-eminent forwards won the bulk of the possession in the second half but they failed to do anything with it. Wasps white rabbit almost appeared late on along with the "Black Fox" but even Rob Howley was not able to turn the murky Welford Road tide our way.

Perhaps Tiggers will thank Wasps for a timely workout in front of nearly 17,000. The champions are getting their act together again after a shaky start. With Gloucester and Northampton playing them soon, if they keep winning at home they may yet win a fifth consecutive title by whichever means necessary -- from the front or from third place.

Wasps may take heart from a losing bonus point but, in common with Tiggers, with our Captain away for three weeks taking on SANZAR, the rest of our team needs to step into the breach and keep the league points coming in.

As Loose Head and Sparkie were otherwise engaged on the day, here are GD's "memorable forgettings" (lifted from the message board), if you catch my drift...

Anyone who constantly slated the ref was only watching the game with one eye. Sure he made some mistakes, which affected both teams, but he made less mistakes than the players and didn't affect the result. Chris White's not the best referee in the world, but he was a lot better yesterday than most of the other referees I've seen this season. There were lots of penalties, which was very frustrating, but considering it was teeming with rain all game and both teams couldn't string any cohesive movements together I think it was quite easy for 16,000 people to take out their frustrations on the ref every time the whistle blew.

All in all, it was a fair result. Leicester deserved to win because they had most of the territory and we were under pressure for more of the game. Wasps deserved the bonus point though because our defence was tremendous, and our pack fought an honourable draw with the Leicester 8. In days gone by, we would have conceded two tries by N.Back esq from rolling mauls, and a penalty try from a 5m scrum. This time, the Leicester forwards didn't come close to scoring really.

The difference between the two sides was that Leicester found it easier to clear their lines and gain territory. Stimpson kicked the ball miles (and we kicked every restart straight to him), whereas our kicking game was pretty average. When we did gain a foothold in the Leicester half, we invariably cocked up the lineout whereas Leicester's lineout was much, much more secure. We also gave away too many penalties, even on the few occasions when we had gained a reasonable territorial position. I also think that the Leicester defence was much better under the high ball than ours. We looked totally unconvincing when defending the garryowen.

Other than that, there was little between the two sides. Most of the game was played between the half-way line and the Wasps 22.

We had a couple of very good chances to nick the game, but 9-6 seemed pretty fair to me (unfortunately).

Leicester: T Stimpson; G Murphy, L Lloyd, G Gelderbloom, S Booth; S Vesty (C McMullen, 77), J Hamilton; P Freshwater, D West (G Chuter, 65), D Garforth (F Tournaire, 70), M Johnson (capt), B Kay, J Kronfeld, M Corry, N Back.

Wasps: P Sampson; J Lewsey, F Waters, M Denney, J Rudd (K Logan, 63); M van Gisbergen, M Wood (R Howley, 63); C Dowd, T Leota, D Molloy (W Green, 63), S Shaw, J Beardshaw (M Lock, 70), L Dallaglio (capt), P Scrivener (R Birkett, 70), P Volley.

Referee: C White (Gloucestershire).

Related link: Tiggers claw their way back