Wasps are turning into late masters, much to the frustration of their director of rugby, David Young. After salvaging a draw in Toulouse in October with a late try, the Premiership leaders left it until the final play of the game in the return to seal their 19th successive home victory.
Young’s response was not to congratulate his players, who created enough chances to win with a bonus point that would have taken them into the final round on top of the group, but to tell them to expect a full-on week before facing Zebre on Sunday, even though the Italian club have conceded an average of 58 points a match in the tournament this season.
It was the third time that a game involving Wasps had been decided at the end. They came out on the wrong side in Connacht after the clock had reached zero and in their last Premiership match against Leicester they were hanging on at the end. “Late finishes are not part of the plan, but a couple of years ago we would have been on the wrong side of them,” said the Wasps prop Matt Mullan, who is in line to start at loosehead for England in the Six Nations opener against France at Twickenham on 4 February following injuries to Mako Vunipola and Joe Marler.
“Our grit and determination got us out of trouble, but the overall performance was what we wanted and that is a measure of how far we have come. We have matured as a group and are now able to see out games, but it is not something we are desperately keen to keep repeating. Dai has promised us a tough week in training and we will analyse Zebre as we would any other side because we know how big a game it is.”
Toulouse have struggled on the road in Europe in recent seasons, but here they were on the front foot from the start, using their big pack to dominate the set-pieces and make a mess of the breakdown to deny Wasps quick ball and the opportunity to crash over the gainline. The hosts were at their most threatening counterattacking from turnover ball, but their finishing was for once suspect and they needed two moments of opportunism when they had a player in the sin-bin from Elliot Daly and Dan Robson in the final quarter to steal a victory their overall play barely merited.
“I was here when we lost every weekend so it is extremely nice to be winning more games than we are losing,” said the Wasps captain, Joe Launchbury, who made a timely return from a calf injury by eventually helping to counteract the breakdown threat of Thierry Dusautoir who for an hour gave a vintage display.
“We should enjoy that and not be too negative, but at the same time we are not playing how we want to. We wanted to play with tempo and tire them out by the final 15 minutes, but they constantly looked for their stoppages but when their tighthead goes down every scrum it is hard to get pace into the game.”
Launchbury and Mullan are set to be named in England’s Six Nations squad on Friday but the prop, who last started for his country in the Twickenham friendly against Wales in May, is thinking only of Zebre. “You cannot be distracted by that announcement,” he said. “It is out of your control and you hope you have done enough to catch their eye. Every player is ambitious to play for his country, but you do not know what is going to happen. All you can do is work hard for your club.”
The England flanker James Haskell will return for the trip to Zebre, and probably make his first start of the campaign, when even five points may not be enough to earn Wasps a home quarter‑final if they manage to finish on top. That may prove too much given the home form of the other pool leaders.
Wasps Beale; Wade, Daly, Gopperth, Bassett; Cipriani, Simpson (Robson, 43); Mullan (McIntyre, 63), Johnson, Moore (Swainston, 71), Launchbury (capt), Myall (Symons, 48), Young, Thompson, Hughes.
Tries Daly, Robson. Cons Gopperth 2. Pen Gopperth.
Sin-bin Wade 53, Cipriani 71.
Toulouse Médard; Kunatani, David, Fickou, Huget; Doussain, Bézy; Baille (Kakovin 67), Tolofua (Ghiraldini 67), Johnston (Aldegheri 56), R Gray, Tekori (Maestri 52), Dusautoir (capt; Fa’asalele 67), T Gray (Galan 56), Cros.
Try Huget, Penalty. Cons Doussain 2.
Referee John Lacey. Attendance 17,248.
