Jones and his French team nearly meet their 'Waterloo' ...

A Near Run Thing ….

The French Champions took a quick Eurostar journey from Paris and arrived in London the day before the match. Reports were they were so relaxed that they spent the day shopping before heading off to North London for the evening kick-off. They nearly paid the price for being too confident and relaxed. Jones rested Hernandez, placing him on the bench. The crowd in North London was poor, reflective perhaps of the lack of confidence hanging over Wasps as they prop the table up.

It looked as if the French side were going to cruise to a good victory as a long kick off was chased by the Stad wingers and Waps were pinned on their own line. A snaffled ruck saw De Villiers crash over the line, Corleto converted with ease. Possibly Stad then went to sleep as the kick off wasn’t dealt with efficiently and suddenly Sackey was streaking down the unprotected flank to score. The only good thing for Stad was that he was so wide the conversion was missed. Jones decided at this point to bring Hernandez on as the kicking was going to prove important.

The next ten minutes or so saw the game played in the middle of the park. A big break by Saubade was just checked by Flutey but it was only a simple pick up which stood between the supporting backs and the try line. In their rush to get the ball they handled the ball in what the referee considered to be a ruck … the resulting penalty was hoofed up field by Wasps, worse still Saubade had to go off for a blood injury. Wasps broke from the lineout and only a very high tackle by Parrisse stopped the North London side from going in at half time with a shock lead! Parrisse found himself in the sin bin, many feeling he was lucky not to get a red.

The start of the second half saw Stad in trouble from a long kick again. Corleto caught the kick well, but then did a howler of a kick which skidded towards the advancing Wasps pack. Dalalgio picked the ball up and charged forward, then he dummied a pass which caught his own players out more than the Stad defence … Shaw ran infront of him and the ref had no option but to call him for obstruction as he stopped at least 4 Stad defenders from getting to Dalalgio. Hernandez showed his quality and put an extremely long kick (pressure kick, torpedo kicker plus massive kick) into the corner, from the resulting line out Parisse (returning from the sin bin) broke on the blind side of a maul, flip passing it in the tackle for Dominici to stroll into the corner, the retreating Wasp players deciding not to tackle him in an offside position believing they would catch him before he could make the line (two break away cards). It was at this point that our reporters swear they saw Fase storm from the touchlines and into the changing rooms!

Wasps dropped their heads, they know they had messed up some golden opportunities and knew equally well that opportunities against Stad (even when they are playing badly) were few and far between. 14-5 to Stad at half time …

The second half started with a nightmare for Wasps as their kick was sliced so badly by Cipriani it went behind the half way line. From the resulting scrum Saubade linked up with Parisse to cut through the Wasp defence again … like before however the normal Stad cool play let them down. They failed to gather from a ruck 9m from the Wasps try line, and then from the resulting line out they lost their own ball and Wasps were breaking down the wing. Desperate cover defence saw Corleto putting in a huge hit on Blin that, yet again saw Fase screaming foul play, the ref saw it as a fair hard tackle and the French quarter of the crowd were suggesting that Fase should take to coaching netball as contact in that sport is not allowed – the studio panel tend to agree. With time running Stad took a massive risk, running it out of their 22m area. Corleto misjudged a kick into space and the ball bobbled down field into the hands of the waiting Wasp backs. As the hooter went they saw the chance for a point as they could narrow the victory to less than 7 points … they had Stad on the back foot and seemed certain to score when again the Wasp backs went offside at a maul en-mass. Hernandez was tempted by the quick tap but regained his sense and slotted the ball out … Jones narrowly escaped his ‘Waterloo’ Fase will rue missed chances and no doubt the ref will come in for some of the blame!