Wasps miss out on semis despite victory (From Bucks Free Press)

Wasps miss out on semis despite victory

5:10pm Sunday 7th February 2010 in

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NEWCASTLE 3, WASPS 9.

WASPS fans will have watched in horror as Cardiff romped to a bonus point victory at Llanelli Scarlets yesterday to kill off faint semi-final hopes even before a ball was kicked at Kingston Park this afternoon.

But for Tony Hanks and his coaching staff, the long trip north was an ideal opportunity to iron out some rough edges before Guinness Premiership hostilities resume next weekend when Sale come to Wycombe.

Discipline was the watchword during the week and after a stuttering January and four defeats in five games – three of which were down to needless penalties - a dead rubber in the North East turned out to be not quite as pointless as it might have been. Apart from an exercise in penalty-reduction, the game also afforded a soft-launch to his Wasps career for Lee Smith, who was starting for the first time on the wing in place of the injured Tom Varndell, while fly-half and captain Dave Walder will have welcomed the chance to find his kicking groove on familiar turf after last week's irritations against Scarlets.

All by the final whistle all three boxes had been nicely ticked.

Despite the myriad injuries and international absentees, Wasps still named a formidable side for their final LV Cup match of the season - even if Joe Worsley did pull out just moments before kick-off with converted winger Mark Odejobi stepping in at openside flanker.

However, for all the changes to the line-up a familiar sense of deju vu crept in with just 63 second gone when Wasps were penalised at the breakdown, and it would have led to the first Newcastle try moments later but for a crossing call from referee Andrew Small.

Wasps were penalised twice more in the next few minutes, but if it was an edgy start it was also a misleading one.

With Odejobi, Will Matthews and Hugo Ellis in the back row, Marty Veale and Dan Ward-Smith as locks behind a front row of Zak Taulafo, Joe Ward and Bob Baker, the Wasps pack put together one of it's most disciplined and dominant halves of the season.

The scrum was solid, their line-out secure and before the interval they even managed to pinch the ball off Newcastle's throw and launch a pretty useful counter-attack.

So confident was Walder in his pack that twice before the break he kicked penalties to touch, inviting the catch and drive, and although they didn't manage to force their way over the second shunt in the closing stages of the half won the penalty which Walder converted from in front of the posts to level it up at 3-3.

Newcastle had led through an early Rob Miller kick, but Wasps' defence was as organised and committed as you would expect with Shaun Edwards watching on, and if anything it was the visitors who posed the greater threat in open play.

Given a platform on which to perform, the Wasps midfield had plenty of ball and probably the most dangerous player on the pitch was Smith.

Twice Wasps nearly worked a right wing overlap to send him over for his first union try, and he might have created it himself had his chip down the wing not pinged off and away through the in-goal area.

But it was an encouraging start for Smith and for Wasps, and it extended into the second half when their pack won bragging rights again when Newcastle's attempts to drive over in the corner ended in a penalty for the visitors.

Walder cleared the danger and for the next ten minutes Wasps picked away at Newcastle's resolve with a series of forward drives in and along the 22.

Their only reward though was a second Walder penalty, and as Newcastle tried to find a head of wind in the final quarter it did not look like it would be enough.

Twice Smith was caught out of position and twice Walder came to his rescue with a superb positional sense, and gradually the control Wasps had at the breakdown and set piece began to fray.

Crucially though, their discipline just about held and in the end that underpinned the victory.

Newcastle's score remained stuck on three throughout the second half, and when Wasps escaped to the half-way line five minutes from the end and Walder sent the hosts trotting further back with an eye-of-the-needle kick to the corner, the match was just about over.

All it needed was the coup de grace, and a penalty 35m from the posts gave ex Falcon Walder the perfect opportunity to apply it and end the match with a 100 per cent record.