Whoever at Wasps is employed to flog tickets for next Sunday’s home tie with the champions, Toulon, should be braced for a busy week. Starting a campaign with a win away from home is good for business at any time. Doing it when the corresponding fixture last season resulted in blowing a half-time lead makes it all the better.
This time there would be no revival from Leinster, who got worse as the game went on. With half an hour to go they looked disjointed and dispirited, struggling against a better set piece and a team with a handful of superior athletes. Leo Cullen, their director of rugby, said it was one of the worst days he could remember with Leinster, their third biggest defeat in European competition and the worst on home soil.
Having lost Isa Nacewa in the run-up to the game, they find themselves with no fewer than three concussions to sort out: Seán O’Brien, Richardt Strauss and Mike McCarthy. If Cullen looked forlorn, however, his opposite number, Dai Young – whose team have a week to recover, while Leinster have a day less to prepare for the trip to Bath – was beaming.
“I thought it was a great performance by us,” he said. “We’ve had some big performances at home but very rarely have we gone away from home and put in a performance like that. It was full of heart and desire. We talked about keeping our shape in defence and winning the collisions – and not getting too concerned about the tackle area. We got taught a real lesson here last season in that area, trying to commit too many players and pretty much came second best having lost that battle. They’d get quick ball and got us on the edges.”
It was not so this time. Leinster played well enough in the first period but could not get any traction when recycling ball in the Wasps 22. A key point came with the only try of the first half, which separated the teams on 29 minutes, when Christian Wade was the beneficiary of a lucky bounce. There was nothing fortuitous about the scrum that launched the mission, however, with Nathan Hughes making ground initially and then a perfect box kick from Joe Simpson landed 10 metres from the Leinster line. Dave Kearney was left for dead by the bounce and Wade gratefully accepted the gift.
Kearney, who actually played very well, also featured in what was the nadir for Leinster, early in the final quarter. He spilled forward a long-range penalty effort from Elliot Daly, whereupon Jack Conan picked it up from an offside position. The groans from the crowd had not subsided by the time Ruairidh Jackson tapped over the second penalty, from close in.
Cullen said: “I thought we were in a good place during the week but we almost were trying too hard. We found ourselves in a position where we were 16-6 down and we just looked very ragged after that. Guys were making simple handling mistakes and there were inaccuracies with our set piece. Guys running into touch. We just misfired across the board.”
The effect leaves them under huge pressure, in what is perhaps the toughest pool in the competition, although Cullen maintained they could still qualify. It remains to be seen whom he will have at his disposal, given the injury count here. The loss of O’Brien, who had to be treated several times before eventually going off just before the break, robbed them of their most effective carrier.
Wasps, in contrast, had a few of those to choose from, with Hughes the pick of the bunch. Wasps led 16-6 at the break but a lovely try from Simpson – leaving three defenders in his wake after taking a perfect offload from the giant Frank Halai – ended the game as a contest and the interest of much of the 16,791 crowd.
That score illustrated perfectly the power and dexterity of the Wasps side for whom the back three of Charles Piutau, the man of the match, and the wingers Wade and Halai, were outstanding. Factor in a very good scrum and a good attack shape and the ingredients for success are there. Wasps tacked on another score just before the final whistle, for Piutau – who will be playing his rugby with Ulster next season – by which stage a good number of the crowd were drifting away. The Wasps contingent were lapping it up, however. Their team’s hard edge will make for a soft sell next Sunday.
Leinster Madigan; Kirchner, McFadden, Reid, Kearney (Ringrose, 69); Sexton, Reddan (L McGrath, 48); J McGrath (Healy, 48), Strauss (Cronin, 25), Ross (Furlong, 48), Toner, McCarthy (Triggs, 42), Murphy, J Heaslip (capt), O’Brien (J Conan, 39).
Pens Sexton 2.
Wasps Piutau; Wade (Tagicakibau, 69), Daly, Jacobs, Halai; Jackson (Lozowski, 72), Simpson (Robson, 55); Mullan (capt), Festuccia (Johnson, 55), Cooper-Wooley, Launchbury, Davies (Gaskell, 66), Jones, Hughes, Smith.
Tries Wade, Simpson, Piutau. Cons Jackson 2, Lozowski. Pens Jackson 3, Daly.
Referee M Raynal (Fr). Attendance 16,791.
