Back to Twickers

By Dobbin
April 23 2010

Twickenham – check. Decent weather forecast – check. Over sixty-thousand spectators expected to turn up – check. Both teams in good form – check. It all seems too good to be true. Where's the catch? It's not even as though we're worrying about Heineken Cup qualification any more.

Last weekend's victory at Worcester – Wasps' first in six attempts – secured our place at Europe's top table for the 2010/11 season. With other results going our way, we can no longer finish any lower than sixth, leaving the likes of Quins and Gloucester to fight it out for seventh place and then find themselves in the unaccustomed position of hoping for a Wasps victory in the Amlin Challenge Cup. Happy days.

Qualification for the Heineken Cup is important, of course, not least in its financial consequences, but it doesn't mean that the season has come to an end – lest we forget, Wasps are still in with a shout in two competitions. It sometimes seems, when it comes to Europe, that next season becomes more important than the current one. Eyes are always turned to the competition we could be in next year. Gotta qualify for the Heineken Cup! seems to be the mantra. Gotta qualify for the Heineken Cup! But while it's undoubtedly good to take part in Europe's premier competition, it means very little if you don't compete when you get there. A couple of poor results in pool matches and all of a sudden you're turning your attention to qualification again, looking ahead twelve months. All this peering into the future – it can't be good for the eyesight. Better to concentrate on the season you're actually in the middle of.

So, the most important thing for Wasps at the moment isn't our HEC berth next year but the upcoming league match against a resurgent Bath team (who are all but guaranteed Heineken Cup rugby themselves, next year). After a narrow victory over Northampton on Tuesday night, Bath sit just two points behind Wasps in the Guinness Premiership table, and like us will be setting their sights on a play-off spot.

Actually, on the subject of that match on Tuesday night, it was blighted somewhat by the EPS rules restricting players to no more than 160 minutes of rugby over the course of eight days. Since both Bath and Northampton will be playing three games in that time frame this week, they have had to manage their EPS players' game time in a way that might not have been in the best interests of the clubs – this on top of the already difficult juggling act that inevitably accompanies having to play three matches in such a short period. Would Bath have won Tuesday's match had both clubs been able to field their strongest teams? It's impossible to answer of course, but the impact of these restrictions and compromises is not confined to the two clubs taking part in the match. It is effectively the same problem that exists when league games are scheduled during the Six Nations and Autumn Internationals. Had Bath lost on Tuesday, Quins and Gloucester would now have a better shot at finishing in the top six. Had Northampton won, the consequences of their result against Saracens this weekend would be different. The agreement between PRL and the RFU might mean that such occurrences are inevitable, but it continues to be an unsatisfactory state of affairs for players and fans alike.

When the RFU was founded in 1871, it was probably reasonable to view the new body as existing for the benefit of the clubs. That relationship has changed over the intervening hundred and forty years, and things like the EPS agreement make you think that nowadays some in the RFU view the top-flight clubs as existing merely for the benefit of English rugby. This weekend, as with Harlequins' Big Games at Christmas, is a chance to demonstrate that international rugby is not the only game in town. In Twickenham's centenary year, sixty or seventy thousand people descending on the stadium for a regular season league game is a statement about the attractiveness and growth of club rugby. With both of this weekend's protagonists, Bath and Wasps, making plans for new homes with increased capacity, it is to be hoped that the next time PRL and the RFU come together to make an agreement, the clubs have a stronger hand to play.

In the meantime, Bath already have a stronger hand to play thanks to the takeover of the club by businessman Bruce Craig this week. After the events of last summer and the mediocre form Bath showed on the pitch in the early part of the season, things seem to have been coming together nicely for the west country club in recent weeks. The new refereeing interpretations suit their attacking style of play, which was in any case already reaping dividends. Eight wins in nine matches since the turn of the year (the one defeat coming at Welford Road) is testament to the effectiveness of the systems that Steve Meehan and staff have put in place, as well as the benefits of key players like Butch James and Olly Barkley returning to fitness.

Wasps have a slightly less emphatic record in the Guinness Premiership since January, but we too seem to have been given a lease of life by the new interpretations. Twelve tries in our last three games and plenty of attacking threats across the backline point towards an entertaining evening on Saturday. Varndell, Sackey, Banahan, Abendanon, Maddock in the wide open spaces. Waldouck against Hape in what could be a trial for England's summer tour. Cipriani against James, should the latter have recovered from injury. Claassens against Simpson. Up front, old boys Shaw and Grewcock battling for supremacy in the second row. Bath's front three testing the mettle of Wasps' improved scrum. And as ever, a ding-dong battle at the heart of the game, in the back row.

Giving up home advantage to take a game to Twickenham like this is a risky business. Wasps still have much to play for, as do Bath. The last time these two teams met at Twickenham was the 2004 Premiership final, which Wasps won 10-6 after Bath had dominated possession. A week before that Wasps had won the first of their Heineken Cups. It might not be the same this time around, but Wasps still have European and domestic honours to go for, and a win at Twickenham on Saturday would be a fine springboard for the closing weeks of the season.

Allez Wasps!