Wasps
Life ain't rosy at the Gardens: Saints 39-3 Wasps
By Dobbin
March 30 2011
Dark days. Northampton Saints strolled to a 39-3 win over Wasps on Sunday, scoring five tries and squandering a few more, to consolidate their position in the top four of the Aviva Premiership. Their opponents, meanwhile, languish in eighth, hopes of qualifying for next year's Heineken Cup hanging by a thread.
They were singing “Can we play you every week” by the end (that and making donkey noises). Unfortunately for Saints, you have to do more to win trophies than endlessly play the also rans. More difficult games are coming up for them, while Wasps have a tricky enough job simply picking themselves up from yet another drubbing. Coming into the match, there might have been a hint of optimism, given the relative form of the two teams. Not that Wasps have been going well, just that Saints had been suffering from a mid-season slump – between the two of them, they'd scored just three wins in their last fourteen Premiership encounters. By the time the final whistle went, however, it was clear that the two sides are currently heading in diametrically opposite directions. With their Six Nations stars back in harness, Northampton move on to a Heineken Cup quarter final and a likely place in the end of season Premiership play-offs. Wasps have to lick their wounds and see if they can salvage anything from what has become the most miserable season in recent memory.
The day had started well enough, hazily decent weather pushing far enough up the M1 to give the East Midlands a taste of the good life. Visits to Franklin's Gardens are never arduous – the lingering memories of 1997 have assuaged many a defeat in the meantime, and despite huge changes to the ground it remains one of the more hospitable places at which to watch rugby in this country. Towering over the ground like a provincial Barad-Dŭr (ask a nerd) is the National Lift Tower, ostensibly a place to test technology for transporting couch-potatoes up and down, but more likely the fortress from which Keith Barwell, the former Northampton chairman, plots his campaigns against those who would oppose his club's will. Currently enmeshed in a skirmish with Northampton council over the Saints' plans to fund a new stand by selling land to ASDA, Mr Barwell has ample experience in dealing with entrenched vested interests and time-serving toadies, as many at the RFU would no doubt testify. From the top of the lift tower the views are probably spectacular, but the view of Franklin's Gardens just below is doubtless the most rewarding for the long-time Saintsman. A modern stadium with good facilities, graced by a team playing attacking rugby and a crowd that regularly comes close to capacity – when Steve Hayes lays awake at night, imagining the new stadium he plans for Wasps and Wanderers, it must be something close to the new Franklin's Gardens that he dreams about. Grounds and crowds like these, however, as Mark Evans suggests in his interview on the Harlequins site, are decades in the making.
Back on the ground, the game kicked off under milky sunlight and for the first ten minutes it seemed as though any optimism in the travelling fans might not be entirely misplaced. Wasps started keenly, hit the breakdown and the gainline with venom and purpose, more than once breaching the Northampton defence. It seemed as though this effort would be rewarded when, with barely a moment of play in the Wasps half, Steve Kefu was put through a yawning gap in the Saints drift and had the try-line at his mercy. Five seconds later, however, referee Dean Richards was signalling a knock-on, and not long after that Northampton were battering the Wasps line and scoring their first try of the day. After that, it was one way traffic. Saints made a mockery of their recent form, their internationals showing no hangover from the dismal England showing against Ireland, their scrum back to its bulldozing best. As the timeless strains of Oh When The Saints rang around the ground (I think I mean timeless), Northampton scored a further four tries and the Wasps fan's mind turned to possible expansions of the Franklin's Gardens songbook. Along with the aforementioned “Can we play you every week” might have been added the power ballad “All By Myself (At The Breakdown)”, the twanging country strains of “Stand By Your Man (Or Flop Over If It's Easier)” and the touching operatic aria Nessun Scora Trya. At one point an unearthly scream rent the air above the Tetley's stand, an awful, other-worldly shriek that went on and on, as though the pain of every awful rugby experience had been condensed into a single moment and played out before the victim's eyes. I could sympathise. I rather felt that way myself. Then the thought occurred that maybe Shaun Edwards was reliving his week. The mystery was finally solved, however, when it was revealed that this was one particular female Saints fan's way of expressing her support. It was an imaginative step up from donkey noises, I suppose. As the final breathless ululation escaped the lady in question's mouth, I looked back at the pitch, to find that the scrum that had begun just before the commotion started had now reached the Pause phase. Several seconds later, the game continued.
Not that there was much to say about it, from a Wasps perspective. After the break we commenced a one dimensional series of trundles in the forwards, invariably ending with a turnover and a demonstration of dynamic attacking play from Northampton. In a way, this game was even worse than the return fixture at Adams Park. There, Wasps were simply obliterated. This time, owing to a less than complete performance from Northampton themselves, we had a lot more possession, but showed absolutely no imagination in utilising it, save for those first ten minutes. Confidence is clearly low, and Leon Holden has a huge job on his hands. One thing did stand out, however. Fresh from the practical imperatives which had seen a pack full of lock forwards up at Leicester and back rows filling in at centre in the home game against Sale, injury forced Wasps to ditch their pre-game plan of filling the back-line with centres this time around. Not to be forced into the conventional, however, we contrived to finish the match with no fewer than four full-backs on the pitch. Have the medical team ever had a busier season than this one?
The final score hardly needs repeating here. One graceless poster on these boards wrote a couple of years ago that Wasps were a small team who had had their day, that the future belonged to big teams like Northampton and Leicester. While the salary cap remains in place, while the collective still outweighs the individual, I reckon that this prediction is wide of the mark, but there's no doubting that a club like Wasps has less capacity to cope with failure than one like Northampton. Could a Wasps or a Sale or a London Irish survive a descent into the netherworld of the Championship, as Northampton did a few years ago, and come out of it not only intact but stronger than when they went in? It's doubtful. Northampton's problems, of course, coincided with the period when they were rebuilding their stadium, when the board's minds were concentrated mainly on issues away from the field. Wasps are in a similar position now. It's a conundrum that Steve Hayes, Mark Rigby and the rest have to somehow solve. We need a permanent home, we need its income and solidity and the potential it has to become rooted in its community, to build a long-lasting and loyal local following. In getting to that point, however, we have to make sure that we don't sacrifice the good things about the club, and that includes its traditional standards on the pitch. Vitally, we have to make sure that Wasps' failures are not terminal. At Northampton on Sunday, there wasn't much to be confident about.
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Picking up on one point, which will no doubt attract brickbats , but nevertheless here goes
We need a complete refresh of the team & coaching right now to avoid disappearing as a competitive animal at the top class in the future but I see little point in persuing this endless wycombe village thing which at this rate wont be resolved let alond built until we are in ND1.
However, if he is willing to spend the cash or bring in a major investor to achieve this then logically he must now think about going somewhere people will come to watch the 'new Wasps' if he sees a franklins gardens or welford road end game.
No-one can have the financial appetite to wait decades to cultivate a local fan base which shows little sign of developing beyond where it is in a location that vastly more people / sponsors from London & South east are never going to come to as its in the middle of nowhere and is too much hassle to do every week.
But first thing first, we have a demi crisis brewing here on the pitch and it needs some major action of the likes we havent seen before and foremeost from the boardroom. Come on Mr Hayes .... gives us something to smile about
Quote:At one point an unearthly scream rent the air above the Tetley's stand, an awful, other-worldly shriek that went on and on, as though the pain of every awful rugby experience had been condensed into a single moment and played out before the victim's eyes. I could sympathise. I rather felt that way myself. Then the thought occurred that maybe Shaun Edwards was reliving his week. The mystery was finally solved, however, when it was revealed that this was one particular female Saints fan's way of expressing her support.
I think I know the exact shout who you mean! And yes, it catches us lot off guard n'all!
Well written review, good luck with the rest of your season guys! Don't forget that last time you played us you went on to a 4 match winning streak against harder opposition then your run in!
Quote:pds18464
A very good post , I presume preceeded like ours, with a silent journey back down the M1.
Picking up on one point, which will no doubt attract brickbats , but nevertheless here goes
We need a complete refresh of the team & coaching right now to avoid disappearing as a competitive animal at the top class in the future but I see little point in persuing this endless wycombe village thing which at this rate wont be resolved let alond built until we are in ND1.
However, if he is willing to spend the cash or bring in a major investor to achieve this then logically he must now think about going somewhere people will come to watch the 'new Wasps' if he sees a franklins gardens or welford road end game.
No-one can have the financial appetite to wait decades to cultivate a local fan base which shows little sign of developing beyond where it is in a location that vastly more people / sponsors from London & South east are never going to come to as its in the middle of nowhere and is too much hassle to do every week.
But first thing first, we have a demi crisis brewing here on the pitch and it needs some major action of the likes we havent seen before and foremeost from the boardroom. Come on Mr Hayes .... gives us something to smile about
Pds i could not agree with you more on this point! I can understand why HAyes wants to build the new stadium near Wycombe due to his ownership of Wanderers, however from a rugby point of view i have never thought of Wycombe as being a suitable place for the team. Personally i believe that they need to cast their net towards London and the south east, which would be much more suitable in terms of infastructure and could forge strong links with grass roots rugby that is very strong there. Wycombe is not the be all and end all, and i fear if we keep focusing there then it will be the team and supporters that suffer.
