Exeter 21-8 Wasps
The final chapter of a season of under-performance by Wasps panned out the same way as the majority of their second half season. Vast possession and territorial advantage for the first 30 minutes yielded a mere two point advantage due to indiscipline and poor handling. Despite the fact that Exeter were all too willing to give the ball straight back, Wasps could not take their chances and the Chiefs made them pay as time wore on.
The tone was pretty much set from the start. Walders kick hanging in the air long enough for Wasps to disrupt the Exeter catchers and force a scrum. After a couple of resets and a poor mans attempt at fisticuffs, Llyr Ap Geraint-Roberts, making his premiership refereeing debut, blew his whistle in favour of Exeter, as he continued to do for most of the afternoon. Although Wasps won the ensuing lineout they quickly transgressed for not releasing, giving Ignacio Mieres the first of his eight kicks at goal, albeit one of two that would hit the woodwork. The rebound fell to Joe Launchbury who made good ground before spilling the ball in contact. Christian Wade, who looked to be Wasps most potent attacking threat throughout the match, hacked forward and then very cleverly picked up his own kick at speed when the defence failed to gather. Although pulled down a metre short, he managed to reach out and ground at the second attempt for the afternoon's first score. Walder's attempted conversion, from wide on the right, was blown off course by the strong wind.
The next 25 minutes would see Wasps make a dozen line breaks, all to no avail. Two more chances would come to Wade, the first from a pick up from Elliot Daly's long kick which unfortunately bounced towards touch rather than infield, allowing the defence to bundle him out, and the second where he picked up a spilled Exeter ball only to slip over with the try-line beckoning. Between those two chances, a similar opportunity was lost when Richard Haughton also lost his footing a few metres out. Other chances were lost with the line in sight when Wasps were penalised for standing up twice at attacking scrums no more than 10 metres out, and two occasions where the ball was passed straight to an Exeter player. Both those had resulted in Wasps backpedalling at a rate of knots and ultimately conceding kickable penalties. Mieres was to shank the first of these wide, but made no mistake on 23 minutes after Launchbury had been penalised for not releasing.
Exeter seemed to grow in confidence as time wore on and they continued to remain on almost level terms. A further scrum penalty after 33 minutes just outside the 22 gave Mieres the chance to put the Chiefs ahead for the first time.
Walder then turned down what appeared to be a very kickable penalty from just outside the 22, perhaps because of the high wind, and kicked for the corner instead. Despite winning the line-out, a knock-on at the first phase gave Exeter another scrum, and almost consequentially, another penalty. A booming 60 metre kick from Mieres gave the Chiefs the line-out right up on the Wasps 22. Several phases on, an adjudged Wasps offside presented Mieres with the chance to make the scoreline 9-5 with the final kick of the half.
From the re-start, a loose ball was picked up by Riki Flutey, who fed Ben Jacobs who cut inside and went over, only to be harshly pulled back for a forward pass. A Wasps turnover from the resulting scrum gave Dave Walder the chance to kick a superb drop goal from 35m to bring the score back to 9-8.
Almost immediately, Wasps broke forward again having secured turnover ball at a ruck. The ball was moved out wide to the left, where Wasps had a huge overlap, only for Elliot Daly to drop Riki Flutey's pass 5 metres out with no defender in sight.
There followed an uneventful 10 minutes punctuated by handling errors from both teams, as the rain started to come down and the ball and surface got more slippery. The Exeter pack continued to exert some dominance, eventually winning a scrum 10 metres short of the try-line. Another harsh scrum penalty against Wasps and Exeter, sensing their chance, opted for another scrum. This was also the signal for Dave Walder, making his last appearance for Wasps before his sojourn to Japan, to limp off and be replaced by Josh Lewsey. A couple of phases later, while playing advantage for offside, a series of drives took Tom Johnson over at the left hand post. Mieres kicked the simple conversion to put his side 8 points ahead with 24 minutes remaining.
Ben Broster then left the fray to be replaced by Zak Taulafo, and almost immediately had a chance to cut the deficit, but Elliot Daly's long range penalty drifted just wide. Seb Jewell then came on for Richard Haughton, with Josh Lewsey moving to full back, and Exeter started their own procession of replacements which would see all their 8 players used within a short time. Mieres then missed another penalty attempt before Exeter pressure finally paid off and winger Matt Jess touched down in the left corner. The conversion attempt, Mieres eighth and final kick of the afternoon, like his first, would hit the woodwork and rebound.
With eight minutes left, Wasps brought on Ward, Baker, Cannon & Burton to replace Lindsay, Payne, Birkett and Hart. A final assault followed to try and capture the losing bonus poing that would have kept Wasps above Exeter in the final standings. However, the earlier indiscipline continued and turnovers and penalties conceded would put paid to any final flourish.
Exeter will look back on their eighth place finish in their first Premiership season with some pride. For Wasps, and their lowest ever finish one place below, it has to for those that remain be 'back to the drawing board'. Certainly a season they will want to forget and even a post match beverage or two half way home was confined to a few muted birthday and leaving celebrations, choices of holiday locations, my daughter's performance at school and inquisitions about my recent eyelid surgery.
