It took a while to open out, but another fabulous Anglo-French encounter finished as it had started — too tight to call and all the more magical for that. Wasps survived a ferocious pounding from the heavyweights of Toulouse and, as so often, their wit and dexterity had the final say, squaring a match it would have been no disgrace to lose. With a chorus of whistles sweeping round this classically raucous French venue, Jimmy Gopperth nailed the conversion of Nathan Hughes’s 78th-minute try from wide out on the right to claim a valuable pair of points.
Wasps were well worth them, despite the onslaught they endured. Indeed, with a little luck they might have had more. Inconclusive footage saved Sébastian Bézy from a yellow card and Toulouse from a penalty try against, when the scrum-half seemed to knock down a ball destined for the hands of Guy Thompson and thence the tryline. And as for the state of the pitch, it would be politest to say it was of a different standard altogether from the stuff played on it.
“It looked to me on the screen that it was a blatant knock-on, and if it was it was a penalty try,” said Wasps’ director of rugby, Dai Young. “The players are adamant it was. I don’t blame referees, but I think it was fair to say there were a number of decisions out there that could have gone a different way. I was just pleased the boys didn’t get too frustrated and found a way to get back in the game.”
What with all the reset scrums on the sliding turf, it is a wonder we had time for such pyrotechnics elsewhere. Then again, six European titles have been shared between these two, so we should have expected nothing less. The first half may have finished with the more prosaically level scoreline of 6-6, but what a softening up the visitors had endured. Tommy Taylor felt the full force of one challenge, which put him off in the first half with a stinger – another injury concern for England – and Thomas Young followed at half‑time. But Wasps were still in the fight by then.
Toulouse’s pressure had reached a pitch at the end of the first half. They were awarded a five-metre attacking scrum after their penalty to the corner went wrong, albeit in their favour by the grace of a lucky bounce against the covering Christian Wade. So it was over to the packs and a pitch that rolled up like a carpet wherever set pieces came together.
Toulouse seemed to have the nudge at most, although chances were affected by the quality of the turf underfoot, in other words: by a lottery. Wasps benefited from solid ground for the series of five scrums that followed, but not enough to avoid being punished: twice by free-kicks, twice by penalties. At the fifth they managed to force Toulouse to run the ball and closed them out with unyielding defence.
Surviving that face-off, well after the clock had turned red, felt like a significant triumph. But such pressure can bend the mind, and when the hammering resumed after the break, Wasps’ composure started to creak. Wade tried to run a mark out of defence, which went wrong, though not quite enough to cost any points.
The wobbling continued. Dan Robson’s kicking had been excellent, but deep in his own 22 he chose not to resort to it. When he fed Danny Cipriani instead, the fly-half tried a crazy cross-kick from in front of his own posts, which Thierry Dusautoir, on vintage form, half-charged down, allowing Census Johnston to barrel over for the game’s first try.
Now the game was cooking. For both sides. Wasps started to look for and find space in Toulouse’s half. They thought they had that penalty try and certain yellow card when Thompson couldn’t take Gopperth’s inside ball, which he blamed most furiously on a deliberate knock-on. Toulouse escaped then, but not a few minutes later.
Wade was now darting in between the vast grasping hands, and a blur of Wasps handling saw Josh Bassett released down the left for a fine riposte, tarnished when he caught his foot in the disintegrating turf as he scored, twisting his knee. These pitches are dangerous as well as disruptive.
Toulouse were not put off by the score. Their surfeit of lineout ball was overwhelming and from it the heavy runners kept pounding. One of their few concessions to levity, Bézy, darted round the edge of one maul to set up a couple of drives to the heart of the visitors’ defence, then set the hands in motion that released another light on his feet, Gaël Fickou, for the try that seemed to have won the game. Toulouse kept coming even then, but now their handling was letting them down, bombing one threatening move and a few others that might have developed so.
Instead, it was Wasps who held their nerve. Kyle Eastmond, one of so many jostling for that No12 shirt, made the first cut, opened further by Joe Simpson. Clean hands then sent Hughes galloping past the challenge of Paul Perez for one final try. Gopperth, of course, could be relied on to land the angled conversion that tied this wonderful occasion with a suitable bow.
Toulouse Médard; Kunatani, Fickou, David, Perez; Flood (Doussain 56), Bézy; Baille (Steenkamp 56), Tolofua (Ghiraldini 56), Aldegheri (Johnston h-t; Aldegheri 77), Maestri, Tekori (Lamboley 61), Cros, Dusautoir (capt), Axtens.
Tries Johnston, Fickou Cons Bézy 2 Pens Bézy 2.
Wasps Gopperth; Wade, Daly, Eastmond, Bassett (Leiua 65); Cipriani, Robson (Simpson 59); Mullan, Taylor (Cruse 26), Cooper-Woolley (Moore h-t), Launchbury (capt), Symons (Myall 56), Johnson, Young (Thompson h-t), Hughes.
Tries Bassett, Hughes Cons Gopperth 2 Pens Gopperth 2.
Referee G Clancy (Ire). Attendance 14,206.
