For those of you that have been following rugby for a number of
years you might remember the London Wasps’ glory days, the time when they secured four league titles in 6 years and won the Heineken Cup twice in 2004 and 2007. Since then then
things have been a little rockier, both on and off the pitch, and at times the thought of returning to European glory has been almost a dream. This year, after 22 rounds of Aviva Premiership action Wasps had the chance to start the journey of re-visiting those heights by taking part in the two legged European Challenge Cup playoff against Stade
Francais.
Two weeks ago the Adams Park leg didn’t go fully
according to plan, Wasps let slip a 12 point lead and ended the day a single
point ahead of their French rivals. This result and the fact that Stade
Francais had only lost once at home this year that before this Saturday
afternoon the majority of people thought that a win in Paris would be simply too greater ask for Dai Young's side... I believe that Phil Vickery said that they ‘would get
destroyed’ however the players themselves had other ideas.
This year Wasps have had the potential to be devastating however due to their own mistakes they haven't clinically finished off their opponents in the way that they should, however in the Stade Jean-Bouin Wasps never once looked like
losing the match. From minute one to minute eighty Dai Young's men were fueled by an insatiable
will to win and they played Stade off the park. The home side were back to full strength led by Sergio Parisse but even the great man himself couldn't stop the swarm. The speed and creativity of Masi,
Daly, Simpson and Vardnell was coupled with the firepower of Swainston, Festuccia, Johnson and Haskell and it proved all too much for the Parisian giants to handle. The
passionate French crowd knew that their card was marked around the sixty minute
mark when Guy Thompson scored the decisive try that put the match out of reach.
Guy started in the 8 shirt in place of Nathan Hughes who was at his own wedding
in Fiji and he had a storming match that caused many people to sit up and take
notice of the young back row forward. Andy Goode's experience showed throughout and the score-line could
have been even more favourable had two tries not been disallowed by referee
Nigel Owens.
Overall the match was a climatic
finish for Dai Young’s men, they truly saved their best, a 50-35 final score on aggregate was absolutely stunning and it was the manner in which they delivered the result that pleased their DoR the most;
"I thought that
we were excellent today. It was probably the first time we have played for the
full 80 minutes. We did very little wrong throughout the game and I certainly
felt like we wanted it more than them today. The boys did themselves proud and
I am really proud of their efforts today.”
Dai is under no illusions that
Europe will be tough next year, however he, like so many other Premiership DoR’s
has signed sensibly and a boosted squad Wasps will seek to deliver
performances like Saturday afternoon on a weekly basis both in Europe and in
the Aviva Premiership. For now I’m sure that he and his players will head into
the off-season or onto International Duty happy in with place that they have
pushed their Club to and extremely excited for the 2014/15 season.
See all the Out On The Full Photos from Paris; HERE
