Wasps survive early controversial red card to shock holders Toulouse
Wasps 30 Toulouse 22
Stephen Jones, Rugby Correspondent
Saturday January 15 2022, 4.45pm, The Sunday Times
So the once-in-a-lifetime match was replicated, within six days. This amazing spectacle, Wasps against the champions of Europe, was in doubt last week because of the home side’s injury list, and especially because one more setback up front would have left them with too few props to stage a game. Imagine the shame of emulating Arsenal.
The coaches at Wasps were worried that the emotion the team expended in that astonishing Gallagher Premiership victory over Leicester Tigers on Sunday would drain them.
It is fair to say, however, that they played as if “un-drained”. This mishmash team, randomly selected from the rump of available players with 19 missing, were stupendous.
They played so far above expectations, with such courage and yet with such organisation, that they dumped the mighty Toulouse more easily than the final score actually suggested. The game was marked by two of those agonising decisions relating to high tackles, both wrongly called, with Wasps losing Jacob Umaga to a red card after 33 minutes — they had been dominant until that moment — and then into the second half, Toulouse’s Anthony Jelonch went to the bin for what looked like a forearm smash.
But for now, Wasps should be allowed to celebrate.
They dominated the huge Toulouse pack up front, where Brad Shields looked twice the player he was when chosen by England.
And the thrown-together back division, with Jimmy Gopperth once again quite brilliantly effective in midfield, defended so well against Romain Ntamack and company that they drove the Frenchmen to distraction. Paolo Odogwu, the dazzling star of last season, was back from injury and played ridiculously well, but the young half-backs, and Tim Cardall and James Gaskell at lock, were almost as good.
Toulouse never gained ascendancy, as their illustrious bench could make no difference.
Wasps may or may not qualify for the latter rounds of Europe, but in this state that is not quite the point. They are keeping a club thundering along when their resources have been scythed at all points.
The red card was delivered by Chris Busby, the Irish referee who was a late replacement and who had never refereed in the Heineken Champions Cup before. To be fair he was otherwise good, but was wrapped up in the game’s preposterous and misplaced conscience when he made his call.
He was unpopular, then, but when he gave only a yellow card to Jelonch for the smash in the third quarter, then he joined everyone in cloud cuckoo land. Umaga came into the action as Martin Page Relo was attempting to jump out of a low tackle to free his feet.
As he rose, Umaga came in, did not have time to apply his left shoulder so he went in with his right, perfectly legally, with no intent and no carelessness, and caught his man high and there was just a glancing blow under the chin.
For the referee to claim that there were no mitigating circumstances was on the point of the nonsensical.
To criticise red cards in the loud and blunt society of the modern day is apparently to applaud foul play and concussion. There is another side to this argument, however, that referees are so caught up by a list of factors printed up and delivered by someone in isolation that they can only follow the trend to send off players.
All that Wasps needed in the wake of the Umaga incident was the news that Tom Willis, who had run all over Toulouse, had to stay off after failing his head injury assessment and he was soon followed off by Tom Cruse.
At the time of the sending off, after 33 minutes, Wasps led 14-7. They were off to a slow start when a superlative Toulouse move and drive allowed François Cros to score an early try. But that was all we heard from Toulouse until well into the final quarter.
The remarkable Biyi Alo, heroic on the tight-head, scored on the end of a series of close-range drives in which Odogwu and Josh Bassett also intervened. Soon after, the ferocious Shields scored from a shift-drive which was unstoppable and, after that, Wasps could easily have scored again after a pop-pass evaded Alfie Barbeary in the clear.
In the second half, Wasps kept on coming, somehow. Jelonch staged a great escape and disappeared only for ten minutes to the sin-bin and, well into the last quarter, Peato Mauvaka scored from what was practically the first proper Toulouse drive of the match.
Somehow, with most of their replacements already on, Wasps had to find some energy to maintain a five-point lead for 27 minutes. They managed it quite brilliantly and hounded Toulouse until the end.
Barbeary once intercepted and kicked ahead and Bassett outpaced all the defence, only to reach the ball a millisecond after it had gone dead.
And although Toulouse tried to put on the pressure, Wasps were still dominating and they finished off the French when Barbeary forced his way over down the right-hand side for the try, which took Wasps two scores ahead and into safety.
The late try by Emmanuel Meafou was no consolation for Toulouse. On the day, heart and soul beat pure class. Inspiringly and easily.
Scorers: Wasps: Tries Alo (18min), Shields (22), Barbeary (67). Cons Gopperth 3. Pens Gopperth 3 (42, 55, 79). Toulouse: Tries Cros (1), Mauvaka (60), Meafou (80). Cons Ramos 2. Pen Ramos (33). H-T 14-10.
Wasps J Umaga (sent off 33); A Crossdale, P Odogwu (R Mills 62), J Gopperth, J Bassett; C Atkinson, S Wolstenholme (W Porter 43); R Martinez, T Cruse (D Frost 38), B Alo (P Scholtz 65), T Cardall, J Gaskell (N Carr 69), A Barbeary, B Shields, T Willis (T Young 24).
Toulouse T Ramos; J Cruz Mallía (M Medard 57), S Guitoune (T Nanai-Williams 57), P Ahki, M Lebel; R Ntamack, M Page Relo (A Bales 35); C Baille (R Neti 57), P Mauvaka (G Cramont 69), D Aldegheri (P Tafili 57), T Flament, R Arnold (E Meafou 20), F Cros, A Placines (Y Youyoutte 69), A Jelonch (sin-bin 55-65).
Referee C Busby.
Topic: Times match report (Read 1288 times)
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