If this is how Wasps respond to off-field disruption they should announce a ground move every week. Coventry may be a long way from Buckinghamshire but here was a stirring reminder that home is essentially where the heart is. Above all else this was a performance which suggested the club has sufficiently strong vital organs to survive its imminent transplant to the midlands.
When a team scrummage with this kind of intent, in particular, it matters not which postcode they inhabit. After 52 minutes a Bath side who have been among the success stories of the season to date were trailing 29-0 to a team playing less like wandering nomads than unstoppable road warriors. Given that Bath’s front five contained three strong contenders to start for England against New Zealand next month it was a remarkable effort.
Granted, the clearly motivated men in black ran out of puff in the final 20 minutes but not before Matt Mullan, Bradley Davies, Ashley Johnson and James Haskell had made the kind of collective impact which renders league positions irrelevant. Mullan, in particular, gave England’s first-choice tight-head Davey Wilson an almighty hurry-up and must be pushing Joe Marler hard in every sense for the startling loose-head berth.
“Outstanding” was the word used by Dai Young, their director of rugby, to describe Wasps’ first 60 minutes and he was not wrong. On top of all the talk about possible fan demonstrations and egg-throwing protests, Wasps’ England lock Joe Launchbury was involved in a car accident as he and his partner drove to the game. The pair, described by Young as “shaken”, went to hospital for a check-up but are both understood to be fine. Launchbury was unable to play, though, and his place went to James Gaskell.
It was one of those days, however, when nothing could divert Wasps, now in fifth place in the Premiership table, from the business in hand. Even though Bath started strongly, with Kyle Eastmond having an early try ruled out for obstruction back upfield, the visitors soon found themselves struggling at the set piece and their afternoon went from bad to worse after the boot of Andy Goode had given Wasps a deserved 9-0 lead.
No fewer than three Bath players were sin-binned in 11 minutes either side of half-time, with Leroy Houston, Wilson and Micky Young all seeing yellow as Wasps turned the screw. Houston illegally upended Joe Simpson – no one, sadly, heard the television match official say: “Houston, we have lift-off” – while Wilson cynically tripped the surging Nathan Hughes and Young tackled Christian Wade without the ball as the wing was about to score. The subsequent award of a penalty try under the sticks put Wasps 22-0 ahead against 13 men, with Sailosi Tagicakibau bursting clear two minutes later to extend the lead further.
By this stage Wasps’ best crowd of the season was making enough noise to make any stadium reverberate, which made Bath’s comeback in the closing half-hour all the more praiseworthy. First the excellent Jonathan Joseph, the classiest of Bath’s backs, nipped over for another smart score, before Young scuttled over for his side’s second. With the admirable Davies, to borrow Young’s phrase, having “blown a gasket” and left the field, there was visibly less oomph in the Wasps pack by now and it was not a massive surprise when Bath scored a third try through the replacement back-row David Sisi.
A penalty from George Ford subsequently earned a losing bonus point but it would have been the roughest of justice had Wasps’ earlier efforts been overtaken as the day’s chief narrative strand. This could have been the penultimate Premiership game played in High Wycombe; after their game here against London Welsh next month Wasps’ next home league fixture, against London Irish, is scheduled to be played at their new Ricoh Arena home.
It will feel strange to see the club, which has spent so many years vying with London rivals such as Harlequins and Saracens, make its new home in the midlands and, as yet, no one knows for certain what percentage of their current fanbase will make the move with them. Then again, if they play with this much spirit they will have no problem making new friends, particularly if their owner, Derek Richardson, can be persuaded to pay for a couple of marquee players to woo a fresh audience.
“Dai’s mentioned two players wearing black but I’ve left that to him,” murmured Nick Eastwood, the Wasps’ chief executive, floating the possibility of a New Zealand international or two joining the revolution. It was the club captain. Haskell, however, who best summed the mood up: “This is the best crowd we’ve had all season. Maybe if we say we’re moving somewhere else we’ll get another big crowd next week.”
Wasps Masi; Tagicakibau, Daly, Leiua (Bell, 60), Wade; Goode (Miller, 71), Simpson; Mullan (Yapp, 73), Festuccia (Lindsay, 76), Cittadini (Cooper-Woolley, 60), Gaskell, B Davies (Jones, 65), Johnson (Jackson, 71), Haskell, Hughes.
Tries Penalty try, Tagicakibau Cons Goode 2 Pens Goode 4, Daly.
Bath Henson; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Eastmond, Watson; Ford, Cook (Young, h-t); James (Catt, 44), Webber (Batty, 48), Wilson (Thomas, 56), Hooper (Day, 51), Attwood, Fa’osiliva (Devoto, 74), Mercer, Houston.
Tries Joseph, Young, Sisi Cons Ford 2 Pen Ford.
Sin-bin Houston 37, Wilson 42, Young 47.
Referee JP Doyle. Att 7,397.
