It was a glorious game, one to linger long in the memory. One also that will sorely test the kneading physios and soothing counsellors of both clubs this week. Bodies and minds after such an afternoon are bound to be in bits, and in the players’ recovery lie matters for reflection.
Unleashing the game of the season with three rounds to go in the domestic Premiership and with both clubs in hot pursuit of home advantage in the play-offs – to say nothing of the Champions Cup semi-final that now awaits Wasps – invites a question even of the victors: how do you follow that? And of the losers: how do you recover from that?
Perhaps there is comfort to be had in remembering just how well they all played here. Far from reducing the level of risk in a game of such import by allowing the No8s, Thomas Waldrom and Nathan Hughes, to dominate possession, both teams set out to combine full-on thunder with flat-out width.
True, Waldrom scored two tries – the first his signature score from the back of a driving maul, the second with a slide from three metres out after a break that may not have been exactly searing but which roundly said yet again that there is so much more to Thomas the Tank than a roly-polyness exaggerated by cramming his head into a scrum cap – but there was deftness in the hands of Gareth Steenson and Henry Slade, gliding grace in the breaks of Siale Piutau and Elliot Daly.
Especially Daly in the turning point of the tie. The signs before it came were not good for Wasps. Harry Williams, a prop who last year was with Jersey, had kept Exeter well ahead after a try by Charles Piutau had threatened to cut right back the advantage earned by Waldrom’s first-half brace. Exeter had stretched their lead to 13 points after a penalty was given away by James Haskell, who was immediately withdrawn.
No, it was looking a little grim for Wasps. Exeter were going for the knockout score. Geoff Parling was denied when the pass to him from Olly Woodburn was called forward; the visiting forwards were straining on – over – the goal-line for a fourth try. Suddenly, though, the ball was lost and from behind that line, Daly set off, breaking two tackles, surging out of his 22.
It did not lead immediately to a try, but within a minute Charles Piutau was over, the full-back’s try converted by Jimmy Gopperth, who had not been infallible off the tee. Time was still against Wasps and the game entered the last minute. They hammered through their forwards and then went wide: Gopperth to Daly to Charles Piutau.
The conversion was difficult. Gopperth raised his arms before it sailed through, the last act of a remarkable game, one so good that it should help winners and losers put themselves back together for their remaining month of the season. It also sets up 1 May sweetly, a Sunday when they meet again in the Premiership.
Wasps C Piutau; Wade, Daly, S Piutau, Halai; Gopperth, Robson; Mullan (MacIntyre, 59), Festuccia (Johnson, 50), Cooper-Woolley, Launchbury, Myall (B Davies, 18), Haskell (capt; Young, 59), Smith, Hughes.
Tries C Piutau 2, Halai. Cons Gopperth 2. Pens Gopperth 2.
Exeter Turner; Nowell, Slade, Whitten (Campagnaro, 70), Woodburn; Steenson (capt), Chudley; Moon (Hepburn, 58), Cowan-Dickie (Yeandle, 66), Low (Williams, 18), Lees (Welch, 56), Parling, Armand, Salvi (Ewers, 58), Waldrom.
Tries Waldrom 2, Williams. Cons Steenson 3. Pen Steenson.
Referee R Poite (Fr). Attendance 23,866.
