I’ve always been slightly
perplexed why everyone refers to the last few games of the season as the “business
end”. It seems to imply that most sides
have just been chilling out or messing around for the first few months of the
season before suddenly realising “oh cr*p, we should try and win something”. But I guess it is the time of the year when
we do start to get answers to all the answers to the questions that the season
has thrown up – for example, will Leicester get to another Premiership
Final? Will Wasps get back into
Europe? Who will be on the Lions
tour? Is Danny Care maintaining that
haircut for a bet or is he actually serious?
So in reality, “business time” means “answers time”, and the answers we
get will invariably leave some disappointed, but when it come to Tigers v
Wasps, you have two of the best exponents of the “business end” in...well...the
business.
From the off, however, it became
clear that the key question was not going to be “who”, but “how much”. Wasps have played some stunning rugby this
season, with the electric duo of Christian Wade and Tom Varndell in razor sharp
form, but there’s always been the remaining suspicion that they have a bit of a
soft underbelly – and without Joe Launchbury, Marco Wentzel and Andrea Masi in
the side, the Tigers set about ruthlessly exposing it. Anthony Allen was the first to make
significant inroads, ducking under a high shot in midfield and scampering through
a gap, before chipping ahead and forcing Elliot Daly to concede a lineout. Fortunately for Wasps, Flood forgot to catch
the ball when it was passed to him, and forgot to aim before kicking when he
missed a straight forward penalty two minutes later, but it was only a matter
of time before Tigers got the scoreboard moving. It came in the shape of a 3 pointer, conceded
by Billy Vunipola, who had looked lively in the opening exchanges, following
good work in the ruck by the excellent Ed Slater. Flood doubled the lead with another kick 3
minutes later after Manu Tuilagi had barrelled his way up to the 22.
A try seemed to be inevitable,
and sure enough, it came after the returning Steve Mafi crashed his way up to
within a metre of the tryline before the ball was recycled and Ben Youngs
darted over to score with one hand.
Flood missed the conversion, and a couple of minutes later he was
missing again, after Graham Kitchener exploited one of the more obvious
mismatches in club rugby by crashing over Christian Wade to touch down following
a superb catch and break by Niall Morris.
Wasps could have capitulated but,
to their credit, did not. Firstly Tommy
Bell – on for Nicky Robinson – smashed over a huge penalty to get Wasps on the scoreboard
before they demonstrated some wonderful tenacity in defence by delivering 3 try
saving tackles in 5 minutes. Firstly Jack
Wallace (who replaced Christian Wade) and Elliot Daly scragged Adam Thompstone
into touch as the big winger went to touch down, before a brilliant try saving
tackle by James Cannon at full stretch prevented a score from the flying Niall
Morris down the right hand touchline.
Tom Varndell then showed off his new and improved tackling technique by
slamming Rob Hawkins into touch as the hooker took a short ball at full tilt,
but the birthday boy wasn’t to be denied – burrowing over just before half time
following a well worked driving maul.
Bell added another penalty for Wasps to leave the score on halftime 21-6
to the hosts.
Leicester were now going for the
bonus point and they grabbed it with ease 5 minutes after half time. Tommy Bell was harshly shown a yellow card
for an adjudged deliberate knock on following another break by the outstanding
Mathew Tait, and from the ensuing scrum, Ben Youngs zipped past Jonathan Poff
to score his second and Tigers’ fourth.
Elliot Daly landed a huge penalty to grab 3 points for the visitors, but
it was a brief respite as swift hands from Slater and Tait set Thompstone
scorching down the wing to score try number 5.
With a raft of substitutions, it was clearly a case of job done for the
Tigers and the visitors only had pride to play for – but Daly regained a big
slice of that with a fantastic individual score, stepping outside Harrison and
gassing his way past the cover. With
that, the game fizzled out for the last 20 minutes, with the most entertaining
scenes coming after the final whistle when Joe Simpson bizarrely tried to start
a fight with Manu Tuilagi over nothing, but that was as toe-to-toe as Wasps
came in this game.
For Wasps, the questions still
remain whether or not they will be playing Heineken Cup rugby next season but,
for the Tigers, they seem certain to have a home semi final for the
playoffs. And you’d be crazy to bet
against them doing the business at Welford Road yet again.
Exeter Chiefs 27 – 6 London Irish:
The Chiefs strolled to an easy win over London Irish at Sandy Park
to keep their Heineken Cup dream alive.
Matt Jess and David Ewers both touched down for the hosts with the
visitors only getting on the scoreboard via 2 penalties from Tom Homer and Ian
Humphreys.
Harlequins 23 – 9 Bath: The
reigning champions ended a horrid run of form with a scrappy win over Bath that
keeps them in the playoff spots. Tries
from the sniping Danny Care and returning Ugo Monye were enough for the hosts,
although penalties from Stephen Donald and Ollie Devoto had Quins behind at the
turn of the first half.
Saracens 47 – 17 Worcester Warriors:
Saracens sealed a home quarter final and continued their fine run of
form with a bonus point win at what is quickly becoming a fortress at Allianz
Park. Sarries were rampant with David
Strettle scoring a great hattrick, with Carlos Nieto, Chris Ashton and Jackson
Wray also going over. Worcester grabbed
their tries through Josh Drauniniu and Matt Kvesic.
London Welsh 14 – 31 Northampton Saints: A bonus point win for Northampton confirmed
London Welsh’s relegation despite a typically gutsy performance from the
Exiles. A double each from Tom May and
Luther Burrell was enough for the Saints, with Welsh scoring through Nick Scott
and Daniel Browne.
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