Wasps played away at Hitchin on Saturday on a cool day, with a stiff breeze blowing down an excellent playing surface. A good crowd came out of the clubhouse, having eaten and in some cases drunk well, to be entertained and entertained they were, but maybe not in the way they had hoped. Fast open exciting play was to be at a minimum whilst flat line defence and tackling were to be seen in abundance.
The game was dictated by the breakdown, an area, which neither side won or lost, it appeared to be a lottery and decisions made seemed to only confuse players even more. In short, I don’t think either side had any idea what laws were being applied in a consistent manner at the tackle area and consequently it became open season and both sides joined in the fun. It did, however, mean that neither side got quick ball and a game with lots of commitment but with limited open rugby and organised structure ensued.
Hitchin elected to play with the wind and Wasps were given the kick-off. Hitchin immediately moved the ball wide to the left and out flanked the Wasps defence, kicked ahead and chased a bouncing ball, fortunately for Wasps Daniel was awake and cruised back to win the race and touchdown as the ball crossed his try line. This woke Wasps up, just a little and they worked their way back to the halfway line. Hitchin returned with a positive attack up the middle and were stopped ten metres short of the Wasps line, in front of the posts, where they knocked on as BJ made one of his defensive trademark tackles. From the ensuing scrum Blayne moved the ball back to the left side where BJ drew two defenders and passed to Nick, who stepped in and out, beat his opposite winger and then used the same procedure to squeeze outside the Hitchin Fullback and move on to score near the posts. Blayne's conversion was successful and took Wasps into the lead after ten minutes. Hitchin 0 Wasps 7.
Hitchin soon had an opportunity to score but an all consuming tackle by Colt John Sperling, who with help from Daniel, held up the Hitchin Fullback as he went over the line. Wasps repelled the next attack and regrouped nearer to halfway.
The next fifteen minutes saw the penalty count against both sides increase at the breakdown, saw the Hitchin Captain spoken to about his teams misdemeanors and to both Captains after some handbags at one particular ruck. The clues were there for the Official, that both sides were confused with his ‘aventguard’ interpretation of the most relevant area of the game if either side were going to get any really usable ball. Consequently confused disgruntled players contested every breakdown with the certain knowledge that they all had at least an even chance.
With five minutes of the half to go Hitchin returned to the Wasps end, won a line-out against the throw and set the ball up in mid-field, reversed it back and their right winger adroitly scooped up a speculative bouncing pass and scored in the corner. The second piece of constructive play of the half had brought the second equally well constructed score. The difficult conversion went long and a wide but the gap had closed. Hitchin 5 Wasps 7.
Wasps returned to the Hitchin end and applied some pressure, with Roon’s and Dan making solid line gains, Sam and BJ crossed the gain line on a number of occasions but the breakdown mess meant that no quick ball arrived from promising positions. Luke, Rory and Dougie, who had started off with two or three against the head and substantial scrum drives came under some pressure and lost a ball against the head themseves, and a promising position was lost. Wasps, however returned and were stooped short of the line on two occasions before being penalised.
Hitchin to their credit knowing the kick was the last play of the game tapped and went. They had several phases and arrived just short of the halfway line and were awarded another penalty. Whilst an injury was being dealt with the ball and penalty miraculously rolled its way forward and ended up eight metres inside the Wasps half, a distance with the following wind that looked achievable. The kick was, however, miss-hit and the half ended with Wasps just two points to the good.
The second half followed the first in style and lack of accuracy from both teams, only the crowd were now more involved and possibly joined the players in their frustrations, but they at least were allowed to vent their feelings verbally. Wasps cleared their lines after an initial Hitchin attack and advanced to the halfway line. Hitchin won the lineout, were pressed in mid-field and their Flyhalf was forced to kick, the kick was charged down and Blayne gathered the loose ball and strolled off to score under the posts. The referee belatedly and to the surprise of everyone on both sides, decided that the ball, had gone forward, to Blayne from the charge-down. Whether the decision was Offside, Accidental Offside, Knock-on I don’t know but we ended up with a scrum, Hitchin ball.
By now both sides were exceptionally frustrated at the way the game was going, the Hitchin Captain was spoken to again, for the third time, and still no decisions of’ its time for a Yellow Card’ came. Warnings and polite chats do not change players attitudes, the age old fact ‘that players get what players want,’ unless they have strong officiating applies as much today as in days gone by. I must add that Wasps were as guilty, but perhaps less obviously, the experience of wiser, older players such as Kieran in particular, Roon’s and Rory was evident all afternoon in terms of subtle nudges and wholehearted drives into contact areas when defending. This did not detract from the fact that Hitchin were having more of the ball and were attacking, possibly trying to play too much pretty rugby and Wasps were doing what they appear to enjoy and are very adept at, defending.
Hitchin had their best moments of the game in the next ten minutes playing mainly at the Wasps end of the field, they had opportunities but made poor decisions at crucial times in a number of attacking plays, often forcing the issue and creating unnecessary pressure with fifty/fifty offloads and passes. Wasps defence thrived on this as their only decision was to tackle or not, a decision that they have effectively been doing most of the season.
From one Hitchin attack in the Wasps twenty-two they spun the ball back across the field to static players, Daniel steeped in and up, and intercepted a floated long pass, he then trotted off the seventy metres to score under the posts. Blayne made the extras and Wasps had taken a more significant hold on the game at Hitchin 5 Wasps 14.
The closing minutes saw the game played almost exclusively in-between the twenty-twos, with both sides cancelling each other out. The final play of the game saw Hitchin trying to run the ball out of their twenty-two, a solid tackle in the centres by Wasps, saw Ahmed, making his first team debut, get in over the ball and win another breakdown penalty. Rory elected to take the points and Blayne obliged to make the final score Hitchin 5 Wasps 17.
This had been a game that Wasps could have lost and Hitchin deserve credit for their positive occasionally ‘gung-ho’ attitude, but like a number of other close games this season, the Wasps team found a way to win, even when slightly on the back foot. The fact that their ball retention and recycling skills were better, went a long way in a game where the breakdown was never an easy place to be, with or without the ball.
For Wasps John was as solid as a rock at fullback, Daniel and Nick on the wings again scored the Tries, BJ and Sam, even with a bloody nose, where their usual solid centre partnership, Ben and Blayne had an interesting afternoon of mixed fortunes at halfback, as they were never quite sure whether the ball was coming out or not in the backs, and Rob played his part positively in two spells on the pitch. The forwards competed all afternoon with Luke, Rory and Douggie having a good day in the tight, Sam Parker winning some useful first-half lineout ball along with Kieran. Roon’s at number eight again had a most productive afternoon both with and without the ball, and the two debutants Dan and Ahmed gave one hundred percent at loose forward in all they did, you could not have asked for more from them. Paynee came on for Sam for the last thirty minutes and was his usual efficient self, committing to all area of contact with relish. But for his all-round display at the crux of this match the ‘man of the match’ award was given to Kieran for his unrelenting hard graft at the coalface of a massively contested breakdown throughout the game.
Wasps play their last League game of the season next week against an Old Merchant Taylor’s side, who are still very much in the promotion race, and will be coming to Twyford Avenue to try to gain a maximum point’s win and avenge a first game of the season close defeat. Wasps will certainly have to up their performance levels significantly from this week’s performance if they hope to be competitive.