Times match report :
Wasps re-emerge as the side to watch with bonus-point victory
Northampton Saints 21 Wasps 34
Owen Slot, Chief Rugby Correspondent
As well as frustrating Northampton at the breakdown with the other members of the Wasps back row, Willis also powered over from the side of a ruck to score his team’s second try at Franklin’s Gardens
As well as frustrating Northampton at the breakdown with the other members of the Wasps back row, Willis also powered over from the side of a ruck to score his team’s second try at Franklin’s Gardens
Match Summary
Northampton 21 - 34 Wasps
Gallagher Premiership16/08/2020 15:00
Referee: Karl Dickson|Venue: Franklin's Gardens
Dan Biggar4'
Dan Biggar11'
Alex Mitchell44'
Dan Biggar45'
David Ribbans62'
Dan Biggar68'
Josh Bassett7'
Jimmy Gopperth8'
Jack Willis16'
Jimmy Gopperth18'
Malakai Fekitoa22'
Ben Harris47'
Jimmy Gopperth48'
Lima Sopoaga59'
Lima Sopoaga61'
Lima Sopoaga73'
Josh Bassett76'
Lima Sopoaga77'
The last game of the restarted weekend was graced by Wasps with its best performance.
Four tries, a bonus point and up to fourth place: those are the key numbers. The finer details are to be found in their accuracy and evidence aplenty that they are a team who can thrive on these new breakdown interpretations.
Man of the match here was Thomas Young. Arguably, it should have gone to his fellow flanker Jack Willis, the coming man of the England back row. Some will look at this game and say Willis, 23, should have arrived on the international scene already. One of those was Young who could hardly get started on his post-match interview before he had hailed Willis’s England credential. “He’s got everything,” Young said.
Lee Blackett, the Wasps head coach, was not exactly going to disagree. He said that he expected Willis to be “there or thereabouts” with England selection this autumn. “He can’t not be.”
It may have helped that the man who will decide, Eddie Jones, was there to bear witness. He would also have seen the contributions of the other back-rower, Brad Shields, plus his stalwart England lock Joe Launchbury. All are highly skilled when the ball is on the ground. It may have helped that Wasps were able to soak up the first two days of the weekend and watch how the breakdown was refereed; certainly, when they got to Franklin’s Gardens, they were able to capitalise.
It was not as if Northampton Saints didn’t know what was coming their way. “We spent a lot of time talking about the threat they would bring,” Chris Boyd, the Saints director of rugby, said of that Wasps back row.
Indeed, it appears Boyd had foreseen it all, even the delicious Wasps try that carved his team open in the eighth minute. “A signature Wasps move,” Boyd said, that they had practised defending.
The execution here was delicious: accurate, fast hands and a lightning pass from Jacob Umaga to Josh Bassett. We had an impressive first game out of the blocks from another young England No 10 contender, Marcus Smith, for Harlequins on Friday night. This, from the 22-year-old Umaga, was high quality too.
Where Wasps excelled was in the accuracy with which they took their chances. Their bonus-point try was a peach.
It has been no surprise that, after so long out, so many teams this weekend looked rusty. That would sum up Saints yesterday. Boyd said that this performance looked like “the pre-season game we needed”.
Wasps, conversely, held the key passes at the right time. After a fairly barren weekend, they gave the Gallagher Premiership the highlights it has spent five months pining for.
Northampton’s job was made so much harder by the Wasps back row and their breakdown work. Wasps were tenth when Blackett took the top job in February; they are now fourth, have picked up where they left off and may be wondering how much further the new interpretations can take them.
“You’d like to think it would help us,” Blackett said. That was why he selected his two “sevens” yesterday.
Willis got on the scoresheet too yesterday, the fourth time in his past six games. This came only ten minutes after the first try, a much more straightforward score, but Wasps, like this, can make rugby look that way. The good work all came before with Dan Robson, Umaga and Zach Kibirige combining to storm the opposition down the right wing; Willis had only to plunge over into the space beside the ruck.
Where were Saints in all this? Not exactly rattled, but this was not what they had spent five months waiting for. They competed well, yet were not as sharp and tidy and, thanks to the work of that Wasps back row, unable to convert good field position into anything more than three-pointers. When Malakai Fekitoa was off for ten minutes, for a high tackle on Fraser Dingwall, they couldn’t manage so much as a point.
They fired a good shot at the start of the second half, when a sniping Alex Mitchell scored from behind a ruck. This, however, counted for little as Wasps struck back immediately, with Ben Harris burrowing over from close. It was only into the final quarter that Saints showed that they might be able to turn the tide. Glimmers of good hands started to show and it took Lima Sopoaga to stop a slick move down the right with a deliberate knock-on that brought him a yellow card. From the penalty, Saints were able to drive over, with David Ribbans scoring. A Dan Biggar penalty cut the Wasps lead to three.
Just briefly, it seemed, we had a tight finish on our hands. Wasps, however, were able to close the game out, first with an easy penalty, and then with a fine closing try.
It originated on their own 22, with Young snuffing out a Northampton attack and then starting one of his own. His short break fed Sopoaga to his left and, when Sopoaga cut in towards support, the move was on. There was pace aplenty: Robson first, to draw the final defender, and then Bassett to finish.
Scorers and teams
Northampton: Tries Mitchell (45min), Ribbans (63). Conversion Biggar. Penalty goals Biggar (5, 12, 69).
Wasps: Tries Bassett (8, 77), Willis (17), Harris (48). Conversions Gopperth 3, Sopoaga. Penalty goals Sopoaga (60, 74).
Scoring sequence (Northampton first) 3-0, 3-7, 6-7, 6-14, (half-time), 13-14, 13-21, 13-24, 18-24, 21-24, 21-27, 21-34.
Northampton
G Furbank; A Tuala, F Dingwall (M Proctor 57), P Francis, T Naiyaravoro; D Biggar, A Mitchell (H Taylor 65); F van Wyk (D Hobbs-Awoyemi 60), S Matavesi (J Fish 47), P Hill (O Franks 47), D Ribbans, A Ratuniyarawa (A Coles 65; JJ Tonks 75), C Lawes, L Ludlam, T Harrison.
Wasps
M Minozzi (L Sopoaga 48; sin-bin 62); Z Kibirige, M Fekitoa (sin-bin 23), J Gopperth (R Mills 57), J Bassett; J Umaga, D Robson (B Vellacott 78); B Harris (T West 56), T Taylor (G Oghre 49), K Brookes (J Toomaga-Allen 36), J Launchbury, W Rowlands (J Gaskell 57), J Willis, T Young, B Shields (S Vailanu 70).
Always a Wasp
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