Irish dismiss unimaginative Wasps
Saturday, 06 Sep 2008 17:13
London Irish comprehensively defeat London Wasps
London Irish kicked off the Guinness Premiership season in style at Twickenham today with a 26-14 victory over reigning champions London Wasps.
In overcast condition, it was Wasps, led by Raphael Ibanez and wearing bright yellow, who started the better and it only took five minutes before Ian McGeehan's men were awarded a penalty.
Mark Van Gisbergen's kick, however, bounced back off the post spurning Irish into action.
A couple of minutes later, a deft kick from stand-in fly half and captain Mike Catt led to the Exiles taking up position inside Wasps' 22 metres area and a sloppy lineout from the Premiership champions resulted in new signing Chris Hala'ufia crossing for a try, which Peter Hewat duly converted to make the score 7-0.
Ten minutes later Hala'ufia was again the centre of attention but this time for all the wrong reason when his blatant trip on Wasps' scrum half Eoin Reddan resulted in a yellow card and ten minutes in the sin bin.
Irish going down to 14 men did not have the effect that Wasps would have wanted though and Van Gisbergen missed yet another penalty.
Joe Worlsey then gave away a penalty in front of the posts for failing to roll away after a disappointing kick by Wasps' fly half Riki Flutey kick and Hewat kicked the penalty to make the score 10–0 after 20 minutes.
The rain then started to fall and Flutey continued to struggle with Irish quickly closing him down on numerous occasions.
In the 38th minute a ridiculously relaxed Josh Lewsey strolled to collect a high ball from Catt in his own 22, inevitably fumbling and the resulting penalty was once again converted by Hewat.
In the second half, Wasps continued to be guilty of sloppy play and lacked any kind of urgency, continually being pegged back by some clever kicking by Catt.
In the 52nd minute, flanker Richard Thorpe strolled through the Wasps' defence after a lineout on the 22 metre line and another Hewat conversion made the scores 20-0.
The premiership champions did eventually cross the try line after good forward work led to Tom Rees suddenly emerging from a maul to run 20 metres uncontested for their first try and Van Gisbergen finally found his range to hand Wasps seven points.
Two more Hewat penalties extended the Exiles lead though to 19 points, before Reddan scored a consolation try, converted by replacement Jeremy Staunton.
Wasps remained unimaginative and despite numerous changes by McGeechan the champions continued to be out-muscled and outplayed and Irish emerged 26-14 victors.