By Graham Denne
November 27 2004

Even when having a good season Wasps always have the potential for spectacularly coming off the rails. Think back to the Celtic Warriors, the Pertemps Bees or even West Hartlepool. This was another of those games. For a Worcester fan, or a neutral, this was a fantastic match. For a Wasps fan, this was the most dispiriting away defeat since Stradey Park a few years ago. As with that match, we cheaply gave the initiative to the opposition and lacked the nous and quality to wrestle it back. We regressed into headless chicken mode. For the middle 50 minutes of the match we were marmalised.

Worcester were magnificent both on and off the pitch. They had a better defence than Wasps, their ball retention was better, their scrummage was better, their line-out was better and their goalkicking was better. They didn't have Oogie though. Their relief at hanging on to a 3 point lead will be tinged with disappointment at missing out on the 4 try bonus point that they had clear chances to secure.

It all started so well. Wasps had the better of the early exchanges with Kinga winning the aerial ping pong and Richards looking busy. Thrower missed a straightforward penalty before Oogie charged down a kick resulting in Abbott sliding over from short range for the opening try. Eight minutes gone, 0-7 Wasps.

The fault lines immediately became clear. The second restart of the game, the second time possession was conceded. Poor passing in midfield led to Haskell conceding a penalty at the ruck. 3-7 and Worcester were immediately back in the game.

Even worse was to come. Wasps attacks were constantly foundering on turnovers. We kept conceding large swathes of territory by our inability to hold on to the ball. One such turnover led to Worcester hacking the ball into our 22. Voyce failed to fall on the ball correctly allowing Worcester to set up a series of rucks on our goal line. Rasmussen eventually crashed over from short range. 10-7 after 15 minutes.

Our play was gradually getting more ragged. A Voyce kick and chase led to a successful Thrower penalty on 19 minutes but the structure was going out of our game. Richards was perhaps trying too hard and bizarrely seemed to be standing in midfield at some rucks. No scrum half! Our scrum looked shaky and wasn't even secure enough to make anything of an attacking position 5m out. We conceded a turnover and 50m instead. Our line-out was poor with Worcester jumpers practically always getting first hands on the ball on our throw. Thankfully they often knocked it forward giving us possession. Messy possession, but at least it was something.

On 26 minutes another insecure scrummage led to a poor clearance kick from Richards falling straight into the arms of the Worcester winger Pieters who evaded three Wasps tacklers and waltzed over the try line from 30m. No doubt Shaun was spitting blood. 17-7.

Thrower kicked another penalty to take the score to 17-10, then missed another straightforward one, but the wheels were coming off our game big time. Slow it down for goodness sake! Give the ball to King! The game was bypassing our most experienced players and playmakers. Where was King? Where was Shaw? Where were Dowd and Green? Their influence was minimal due to the general harem scarem. Keep hold of the ball and we'll win. Keep dropping it, keep kicking it to their back 3 and keep up the low standards of our line out and Worcester would be home and hosed.

So it proved. Another turnover by Wasps led to Oogie fielding a speculative catch in our 22. From the subsequent ruck the ball squirted out and led to Collier practically walking the ball under the posts. 24-10 after 39 minutes, with Worcester looking the more incisive in attack and the more secure in defence. It looked a big lead. Three tries conceded, all from turnovers.

Gats was obviously as fed up at half time as everybody else in the ground wearing a Wasps badge. On came LBND, Phil, Harvey and Henry. I suspect screams were heard from the dressing room.

The second half started ominously. A soft penalty conceded gave Worcester field position, then Dowd was penalised for standing up in a scrum. 27-10 after 44 minutes. Marvellous. Abbott and Erinle were getting no change out of the Worcester midfield and Wasps players were constantly dropping passes on the burst.

On 50 minutes we sprang into life. A Worcester clearing kick found Voyce on half-way who started a marvellous counter attack. A multi-phase move eventually saw Oogie scoring a great try to close the gap to 27-17. 50 minutes gone and we'd executed something accurately. Miraculous.

Worcester continued to look dangerous and only try saving tackles from Thrower and a poor pass with the try line begging stopped them getting the bonus point try.

Wasps had upped their game but some of the execution was still dreadful. Don't kick possession away when you finally get in the opposition 22! Especially after a multi-phase move finally gets us within 10m and weve got two stepping centres in Erinle and Abbott. Brooks was the culprit in this case, but it was symptomatic of the wrong options taken throughout the match. In contrast, as Wasps upped their game, Worcester got their tactics spot on. They slowed the game down. Scrums took longer to form. Players picked up injuries. They concentrated more on the set-piece. They showed Wasps how we should have played in the first half. Good on them.

Our moment of hope, and of joy, came on 74 minutes. Poor old Oogie. On any other day he would have got the headlines. He scored a quite magnificent try. Taking the ball on half-way, he barged and stepped his way past 5 defenders before powering over the line. Breathtaking. It deserved to grace a better Wasps team performance. I almost felt sorry for him that his efforts would be overshadowed by the result.

So, could we salvage an unlikely victory. Unfortunately not, though to be frank we wouldn't have deserved it. At least we salvaged a losing bonus point which looked highly improbable at half-time. Did we underestimate the opposition? No of course not. The 22 players selected were good enough to win the game and would have done if they'd played to their collective ability. Maybe there were too many changes. Too many new combinations, too many players coming back from injury, too much inexperience in key parts of the team. A difficult choice. We won't keep or develop our good young players if we don't play them. If we don't beat Leicester next week we're unlikely to successfully defend our Heineken title. If we win next week and are in the top 3 of the ZP come the end of the season I guess Gats won't be too concerned at this result. Me though? It just seems a crying shame that in a season where we win at the Rec, we win at Kingsholm, we win at Franklins Gardens, we lose away at Sixways where many of the top clubs have been successful.

A disappointing night out for the travelling support and a painful journey home. Thankfully, my journey was shorter than most. I arrived home in my GL postcode to find a bag of crisps pinned to my garage door. Worcester Sauce flavour.