Wasps left with uphill task

6:51pm Sunday 4th May 2008

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LAWRENCE Dallaglio said no-one writes your scripts for you in sport and he was proved right as his final competitive game at Adams Park ended in a hugely damaging defeat to Gloucester at Adams Park this afternoon.

After eight wins in a row, his team failed even to collect a bonus point as Gloucester won 25-17 to dump Wasps out the play-off positions with just two games left.

It means Wasps must win their game in hand in Newcastle on Wednesday and then beat Leeds on Saturday to be certain of a top-four finish. But the top two, and a home semi-final, is a long shot now.

If Wasps do still make it to the knock-out stages, they will do well to avoid Gloucester. At the start of the year they were five games unbeaten when they went to Kingsholm and lost, and coming into today's game Wasps' winning run in the Premiership was eight; if Wasps have a bogey side, the Cherry and Whites are it.

But Wasps will look back on this defeat with plenty to regret. Not least their start.

In front of a capacity 10,000 crowd, the home side were strangely subdued as the boot of Ryan Lamb pinned them deep in their own half in the opening minutes.

Only clean ball from their own line-out, never a given with Wasps, kept Gloucester at bay until Danny Cipriani, who has been ill and not trained for eight days, finally relieved the pressure with a long kick to touch.

But if the home support thought Wasps had steadied themselves, they were very wrong.

Under intense pressure, Josh Lewsey spilled Lamb's box kick and Mike Tindall gathered the loose ball to run in unopposed after seven minutes.

Lamb pushed the conversion, but it was small relief as Gloucester nailed their early initiative onto the scoreboard with their second try within minutes.

Tindall was again the scorer, reaching over after a devastating attack down the right to touch down and Lamb made no mistake this time to leave Wasps reeling, 12-0 down after 11 minutes.

When a long-range Cipriani penalty hit the post shortly afterwards, and then Paul Sackey and Riki Flutey were stopped, turned and slammed into the ground within moments of each other, Wasps fans might have feared the worst.

Concerns weren't eased when Cipriani missed another penalty after 15 minutes, and although he finally got his side on the scoreboard with his third attempt after 20 minutes, it was cancelled out almost instantly by Lamb's precise reply from the left touchline.

Gradually though, there were signs of life in the hosts.

Tom Voyce changed the mood inside Adams Park with an audacious run inside the Gloucester defence that had try written all over it until Akapusi Qera's out-stretched arm tapped his ankle.

Then Sackey and Flutey created havoc down the opposite flank and when Wasps won a penalty for their efforts Cipriani summed up the growing confidence with a kick to touch rather than at the posts.

Wasps promptly scored from the catch and drive, Raphael Ibanez ploughing over from close range with Cipriani adding the extras to cut the gap to 15-10.

From then until the break it was one-way traffic and Wasps should have drawn level on at least three occasions.

Cipriani ignored Voyce outside him from one break, lost his footing in another and then Fraser Waters was within a whisker of going over until a lunging Ollie Morgan brought him down metres short.

But their failure to turn chances into points would come back to haunt them in the second period.

Wasps have complained that 15 minutes for half-time is too long and the interval certainly broke their rhythm here, with Gloucester beginning the second half like they had the first.

But despite their control of both possession and territory, their third try came from an outrageous fluke from Lamb.

His kick for touch sliced almost sideways, turning into an excellent pass for James Simpson-Daniel and when he gathered it cleanly and took Lewsey out the game with a quick off-load, Morgan could enjoy an untroubled jog to the line.

Lamb's conversion stretched Gloucester's lead to 22-10 and, with a view to the challenges immediately ahead of them, Wasps rang the changes with Jeremy Staunton and Mark McMillan replacing Cipriani and Eoin Reddan after 54 minutes.

Just after that Tim Payne and Joe Worsley made way for Michael Holford and James Haskell, but if these changes could've been seen as weakening the team it did not pan out like that as lightning struck twice after 63 minutes - a penalty kicked for touch, good possession from the line-out and Ibanez scrambling over; 22-15.

Staunton's acute conversion cut the deficit to one try with 15 minutes left, and Simon Shaw would surely have got it with 12 minutes left had Lewsey's chip bounced more kindly in front of him.

Instead, it bobbled sideways and out of play, but it was that sort of day for Wasps.

For all but the second quarter Ian McGeechan's side were off colour and despite their huffing and puffing in the final stages, the head of steam never properly materialised.

Like they did on their home patch, Gloucester were largely untroubled as the game wound down. Every thwarted attack seemed to invigorate them and sap their hosts, and when Lamb converted again with 85 minutes on the clock Wasps' fate was sealed.