It had seemed the Premiership’s longest unbeaten home run was about to be reset. It had seemed, just as the season reaches its climax, that Wasps’ wobbles were to be confirmed as fully contracted. But with the last play of the game, after a 10‑minute siege, Matt Mullan was driven over for a try whose conversion won the game. It also netted a bonus point, keeping them top of the table by five points.
So that 16-month unbeaten run remains intact but whether they can hope to win the Premiership with defence like theirs remains unlikely. Their attack, though, is spectacular. At times in the second half they were unplayable but their first half was almost as chaotic as their match had been against Leinster the week before.
Northampton walk away with two bonus points themselves, moving them level on points with Harlequins in the race for the top six. They outscored Wasps five tries to four but they could not cope with the varying depths of Wasps’ runners once the latter found their rhythm. Northampton’s form has been gradually improving lately. Alas, their first four tries here were each scored in the corner and Stephen Myler could not convert any of them. How that would tell.
Wasps picked up where they left off in Dublin, which means they were all over the place for the first 20 minutes. An error by Willie le Roux yielded an early penalty and Jimmy Gopperth’s horrible pass handed Ben Foden an early try – 8-0 to the visitors.
But even when disjointed, Wasps retain the ability to cut the unwary to pieces. Gopperth sent Elliot Daly on a beautiful line through Northampton’s midfield to keep the home side in the game. So Northampton came again. Not for them the dazzling angles of Wasps but some hefty carries worked Alex Waller over in the corner. Just before the break Ahsee Tuala scorched down the right and the feisty Courtney Lawes punched further into the heart of Wasps’ defence before Myler and Harry Mallinder worked George North into the corner. Northampton, three tries to one at the break, led by five points.
Dai Young, Wasps’ director of rugby, spoke afterwards of a colourful half-time team talk but no amount of head-banging can improve timing and concert which is where Wasps suddenly transformed themselves, as if the previous three halves of rugby had been little more than a bad dream. They had levelled the try ledger within 12 minutes of the restart and imposed a seven-point lead. In that time they tore Saints open enough to make it feel more comprehensive than that.
Ashley Johnson was the first to burst clean through, precipitating a flurry of passes among a host of supporting players – then the ball went to Christian Wade. Five defenders confronted him but the moment he chipped the ball wickedly over the top of them it was clearly a try. Next it was Daly haring through, off an inside ball from Le Roux, and from the established scrum Joe Simpson scored in the corner.
Wasps’ attack was at another level but the defence remained vulnerable. Northampton hammered at their line round the hour mark and scored from the scrum all too easily, straight hands putting Tuala over in the corner. Eight minutes later Saints had a five-point lead when Api Ratuniyarawa put Teimana Harrison clean through the midfield for a try, their fifth, which Myler at last converted.
Cue wave after wave of Wasps attacks. With 10 minutes to go, Le Roux thought he had scored after some classic approach play but the TMO reckoned Joe Launchbury had run a blocking line. When Foden kicked the ball dead from his own 22, Wasps set up a siege for the last few minutes with a series of penalty-winning driven lineouts. It was not until the 80th minute, and the fourth such penalty, that the referee reached for his card. Wasps could not take the lineout, with time up, so they tapped and went. Nathan Hughes drove close, practically single-handed through a phalanx of Saints defenders, and another phalanx of Wasps players drove Mullan over for the euphorically celebrated try.
“Never in doubt,” said Young with a smirk. But it was. It really was.
Wasps Le Roux; Wade, Daly, Beale, Bassett (Cipriani 69); Gopperth, Simpson (Robson 53); Mullan, Taylor (Cruse 64), Swainston (Doran Jones 60), Launchbury (capt), Myall (Symmons 58), Johnson (Hughes 46), Young, Thompson.
Tries Daly, Wade, Simpson, Mullan Cons Gopperth 3 Pens Gopperth 2.
Northampton Tuala (K Pisi 71); North, Tuitavake (Burrell 64), Mallinder, Foden; Myler, Groom (Dickson 64); A Waller (E Waller 65), Hartley (Haywood 60), Brookes (Hill 56), Lawes, Ribbans (Ratuniyarawa 65), Gibson, Wood (capt; Harrison 60), Picamoles. Sin-bin Gibson 80.
Tries Foden, A Waller, North, Tuala, Harrison Con Myler Pen Myler.
Referee Craig Maxwell-Keys Att 21,131.
