By Mark Huckerby
April 18 2005

A hard fought match at the Causeway Stadium saw Wasps struggle to see of an abrasive Worcester outfit. After their poor performance at Sixways earlier in the season Wasps were aiming to take five points of a team deep in the relegation mire, in order to keep up the pressure on Leaders Leicester. Wasps, who displayed some stunning champagne rugby, dominated the first fifteen minutes. Tom Rees did well to tidy up a messy Wasps scrum and he fed Van Gisbergen whose half break put Thom Evans into space. Josh Lewsey picked up the ball from the ensuing ruck and glided through the Warriors defence. An arcing 40 metre run saw Lewsey skin four tacklers to score under the posts after only 4 minutes. Van Gisbergen added the conversion to give Wasps the perfect start.

The Worcester scrummage began to prove a nuisance however and became the starting point of a series of attacks by the Warriors. A great hit from Paul Sackey stopped the last of these attacking waves dead and Sackey could only look on in total bemusement as referee Sean Davey awarded a penalty to Worcester. Worcester opted for touch on the Wasps 5 metre line and from the lineout referee Davey missed a blatant punch by Craig Gillies. It mattered little though as Wasps forced the turnover and the ball was flung to Sackey in space. Sackey eased outside his opposite number and fed Van Gisbergen who continued the moved into the warriors 22m. Tom Voyce then showed his strength as he carried the ball and three Worcester players over the tryline but Voyce was alleged to have been held up. The continuing Wasps pressure eventually forced a penalty and Van Gisbergen nonchalantly added three points to make the score 10-0 in Wasps favour.

There was even better to come from Wasps as Tom Voyce made another clean break on fifteen minutes. Joe Worsley carried the move up to the Worcester 10m. A wonderful exhibition of flamboyant rugby began with Josh Lewsey flicking the ball off the floor to Matt Dawson whose perfect looped pass found Paul Sackey. Sackey produced another textbook sidestep to beat his man before pooping the ball to Joe Worsley. A gorgeous slipped pass out of the back of the hand from Worsley to Thom Evans deserved five points but the Warriors recovered to force the youngster into touch just short of the try line.

Worcester were forced to resort to Guerilla tactics including taking men out in the lineouts and constantly straying offside in order to break up Wasps head of steam. This proved successful as Wasps became frustrated and began to try and force the game instead of keeping it simple. The Warriors began to live off Wasps mistakes and by the 25th minute they had started to string some attacks together. Referee Davey was oblivious all afternoon to the two Worcester centres obstructing the Wasps defence and in the 27th minute this allowed James Brown the space to execute a pin point grubber kick into touch on the Wasps 5m line. Tom Voyce took a quick lineout and nearly found himself isolated but Wasps recovered well and once again the ball was spun out to Paul Sackey who broke upfield. Lewsey took the ball deep into Worcester’s 22 but another mistake ended a very promising Wasps attack.

On 33 minutes it was a cynical piece of play which prevented a Wasps try. Matt Dawson broke right from a scrum on halfway and got outside his man. Through the initial Warriors defence, Dawson had Lewsey to his left and Sackey on his right. A popped pass to Lewsey would have signalled try number two for Wasps but he appeared to be tripped up off the ball by a Worcester player.

With halftime approaching Wasps were driven back through a combination of a lack of composure on the ball and mistakes made by the referee. Matt Dawson was eventually forced to carry the ball over his own tryline and Worcester stepped up the pressure on the Wasps scrummage. A tedious period of reset scrums was finally broken by a James Brown drop goal on 41 minutes to make the score 10-3 at halftime.

Wasps policy of running the ball from everywhere continued after the break and led to distaster in the 46th minute as Thomas Lombard pounced onto a needlessly loose Wasps pass to draw Worcester level. Minutes later Lombard spurned the chance to put the relegation threatened Warriors into a healthy 17-10 lead as he took his eye of the ball with a clear run to the line.

This let off appeared to wake Wasps up and they began to attack again through Erinle and the irrepressible Tom Rees. The Referee finally saw sense after 54 minutes by giving Pat Sanderson ten minutes in the cooler after consistent Worcester infringements. Five minutes later Worcester were made to pay even more heavily as Matt Dawson took a quick penalty and great strength from Tom Rees carried Wasps deep into the Worcester 22m. The move was finished by Dallaglio’s swan dive touchdown and Van Gisbergen’s conversion established a 10 point gap between the teams.

This second Wasps try altered the balance straight from the restart which James Brown put out on the full. Phil Greening soon made way for Trevor Leota who linked up with Erinle to drive Wasps deep into Worcester territory. Once more a promising move was ended through a lack of concentration and sloppy handling, but Wasps disrupted the Worcester scrum. Lewsey surged towards the Worcester line and though he was dragged down short he committed enough defenders to create a massive Wasps overlap. Joe Worsley was the beneficiary, as he scored Wasps third try.

Despite great Warriors pressure in the final ten minutes Wasps finally broke away in the 81st minute after a Dale Rasmussen knock on and Sackey scorched home to secure another bonus point win for the home side. A late consolation try from Ben Hinshelwood made the final score Wasps 32 Worcester 17.

It mattered little however. Wasps had done all they could to ensure the battle for 1st place went down to the wire. With Saracens doing us a favour today too and Martin Corry set to miss Leicester’s end of season, the fight for the premiership remains very much alive.

Man of the Match: Lawrence Dallaglio. Tom Rees was outstanding in the loose, but Dallaglio and Matt Dawson showed excellent composure and experience to keep Wasps in the driving seat throughout.