> Wasps entertained Finchley on Saturday at Twyford Avenue and for the first time in months the sun shone and the underfoot conditions were perfect. Playing on the London Wasps training pitch seemed to focus the Wasps players' minds and they partook in an excellent, focused warm-up and were clearly ready for the game come kick-off. Wasps started with a bang and were quickly on the attack, playing into a stiff breeze and controlled the ball well in the early exchanges.
> Finchley had also turned up to play and their defence stood firm under this initial pressure, in which Wasps were driving the ball close in and trying to break through the middle. Both sides were committed to the ball at the breakdown and quick ball was not readily available to either side, which led to Wasps changing their tactics slightly and going for a more direct approach. The first twelve minutes had been played almost exclusively in the Finchley half and Wasps are to be congratulated for their concentration and ability to keep playing to a structured game plan and not go for any extravagant individual sorties.
> After this initial control and pressure Wasps were finally rewarded with a penalty, for a high tackle, just to the left of the Finchley posts about thirty yards out. BJ, back at number ten and on kicking duties, showed that his assiduous practise before the game was not wasted and comfortably kicked the goal, taking the Wasps team into a fully deserved 3 points lead.
> The next fifteen minutes saw a much more even contest, with both sides maintaining control of their own ball and going through a number of phases, but invariably making only small gains in territory, before making mistakes or coughing up the ball, to give their opponents their turn to do roughly the same.
> The game was competitive but in many ways stagnant. Wasps Forwards, through Rory’s decision, decided to be more direct and reverted to a much closer tighter driving game. This almost immediately brought rewards with an excellent pick and go try being scored by Tysen, after the Forwards had controlled the ball through at least twelve phases of possession, with short and longer gains before finally crossing the Finchley line near to the posts. This had been an attritional drive and all eight Forwards had been fully involved. BJ stepped up and added the backs contribution to the score by successfully placing the conversion between the sticks. The score at Wasps 10 Finchley 0 was a deserved reflection of the possession and field position that Wasps had managed during the first twenty-five to thirty minutes.
> Finchley responded well and immediately took the game to Wasps and tested the Wasps defence to the full. Strong tackles, which had to be made, were provided by Dylan, Cam and Sam during this spell of pressure. The pack did their bit by taking a strike against the head and Wasps kept the Finchley attacks at no closer than ten metres from their line. Having weathered this powerful Finchley response Wasps broke out and scored an exceptional try, from inside their own twenty-two. Winning a ruck, the ball was quickly transferred to Aussie Alex, who crashed through two players in the centre of the field, the ball was then transferred through five pairs of hands before George was left with ten metres to go, he drove through the last covering Finchley defender to score an outstanding team try in the left hand corner. BJ narrowly missed the difficult conversion but at Wasps 15 Finchley 0 Wasps had a solid lead to show fort their efforts as halftime approached.
> As the whistle blew for the break Wasps were pleased with their efforts into the wind but were also aware that Finchley had defended well and were certainly still in the game. It had developed into a more attritional game than Wasps would have wanted at the outset, but the breakdown was not a place for the feint-hearted from either side, and the Physio’s from both sides, had been busy on the pitch dealing with and magically healing collision survivors.
> The second half started with Wasps well in control of the ball and was almost exclusively played in the Finchley half for twenty minutes. Wasps knocking at the door and Finchley clearly not open for visitors. Consequently, Wasps forwards, probably got involved in too much pick and go and driving mauls, as their main attacking methods and were expending massive amounts of energy in the process. This suited the robust Finchley forwards down to a tee. During this spell of pressure Wasps had driven ball forward and sucked defenders in, thus creating big overlap situation but then went again and got held up or knocked-on in contact and consequently wasted at least four clear cut opportunities.
> In truth they had got sucked into a game that suited their opponents and the game was slowly becoming more frustrating for the backs of both sides, as they watched the forwards contest every situation in a ‘manly’ manner. During this period of play Tysen, Aussie Alex, Ticks, Ryan, BJ and Rory were all held up just short or over the Finchley line, and on some of these occasions the wrong options had clearly been taken.
> Finchley finally broke out and had one or two really impressive phases of play, with their Fullback making a couple of mazy runs, these plays tested the Wasps defence and sound tackling by Freddie, Alex and Tysen in the back-row along with Sam and Dylan in the centres dampened most fires, but there was clear intent from Finchley, that they had not given the game up. On one occasion a Finchley player drove over the Wasps line, but Tysen managed to get underneath his diving body and hold the ball up and stopped what looked like a certain try. Wasps survived this period of pressure and returned to the other end of the pitch with some good interlinking play by Backs and Forwards.
> The games next points came when the Wasps Backs, were given an attacking ball by their Forwards earlier in the piece than had previously occurred in the game, they ran a straight-forward dummy runner pop move which put Dylan through to score unopposed under the posts. This looked oh so simple and one wondered why they had not been given access to more of this attacking ball. BJ once again placed the conversion through the posts and Wasps had taken a 22 – 0 lead with twenty minutes still on the clock.
> The final twenty minutes of the game saw the efforts of both sets of forwards come home to rest, they were basically running out of steam, having been contesting every situation for the first hour in a winner takes all ‘bun-fight’. Wasps had clearly won this scenario, the Referee had tried his best to keep both sides playing at the breakdown but there had been far too many handling errors and basic mistakes for the game to have really flowed in the manner that the conditions suggested it should have.
> Space was beginning to appear and both sides attacked finding more opportunities as players began to tire. Dami appeared on the opposite wing and made an excellent outside break then inexplicably kicked ahead, when he had one man to beat. Tim catching a Finchley kick opened the game up with a massive cross field pass to BJ, his pass on to Josh, making his seasonal debut, put him in the clear but the last Finchley defender pulled off a try saving tackle. Dylan knocked-on as he crashed through a gap to cross the Finchley line. Finchley were also making large yardage gains in their Backs as they too moved the ball more effectively.
> Players from both sides were starting to drop of tackles or not quite getting there to make the tackle in the first place. Unfortunately for both sides most of these attacks were starting well inside their own half, so required quite a bit to go right in order to end in a score. We had sevaral minutes of a form of rugby table-tennis being played. Both sides created a number of half chances but no-one quite managed to ice the cake.
> Finchley finally scored a good try after a series of plays in the Wasps half. Two or three structured phases led to their second-row crossing and running around to near the post. The quickly taken drop-kick conversion was successful and took the score to Wasps 22 Finchley 7.
> There was still positive intent from both teams over the remaining few minutes but the warm weather and physical exertions had caught up with most of the players. The wings and full-backs were still full of beans but the players who would provide them with the ball had run their race.
> This had been a competitive game played by and large in good spirits but had been mainly a Forward dominated contest. Both side Backs had actually looked capable of playing some attractive attacking rugby but had only been given the ball as a last resort by their Forwards for the first hour of the game. Wasps would have been disappointed not to have scored a bonus point try with the situations and opportunities they had and Finchley will have thought that they should have scored more points. Both sides would be right in their thinking but in the end the right side had won and both sides had made it an entertaining afternoon.
> For Wasps Greenie, Rory, Adam and Paynie had formed a solid Front-row all game, Ticks, Tysen and Kieran had won all their line-out ball and Tysen, Aussie Alex and Freddie had been their usual dynamic selves in the Back-row. Cam had an excellent game at Half-back and BJ had kicked well from hand and controlled the game well on the occasions he was allowed the ball. Sam, Dylan, Ryan, Dami, Josh and Tim had been solid in all they did whilst George had produced his usual number of ‘bullocking’ runs.
> This had been a solid team performance but Wasps would have felt they should have scored more points with a little more adventure and ball movement. The man of the match was always going to be a Forward and Ticks contribution at the line-out, where he dominated possession on both teams throws, his excellent restart work and all-round ball carrying put him just ahead of Tysen and Aussie Alex.
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