Wasps’ esteemed coach, David Young, has been warning his lads not to get ahead of themselves. On that basis this defeat was as inevitable, even after the thrashings they gave Harlequins and Saracens, as it was salutary.
“A disappointment but not a disaster,” Young said. “I’ve maintained all along when we play like we can that it takes a very good team to beat us. But we are not the finished article. If we don’t hit our straps we are still going to lose games.”
In Christian Wade, Wasps had the most dangerous player at Kingsholm, as was proven by the brilliance of his try, which was scored amid a blaze of rapid movement. Otherwise, Wasps failed to activate the attacking and counter- attacking game that has given the rest of the Premiership so many problems. Gloucester neutered even the threat posed by the hitherto unstoppable and rampaging Fijian No 8 Nathan Hughes, who becomes an English resident later this year.
“That’s right up there as a victory, given Wasps are the form team in the Premiership and probably Europe right now,” the Gloucester captain, Greig Laidlaw, said. “Confidence, that’s the main point of a win like this. Now we have to back it up.”
Laidlaw’s Scotland coach, Vern Cotter, would have preferred his man to have a weekend off but Gloucester were major beneficiaries of the Six Nations off week and Laidlaw will benefit from this performance when he faces France on Sunday.
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Gloucester are sixth, Wasps still third. The very least Gloucester can hope for when they play at Worcester on Saturday is to avoid the terrible attrition-rate that could have thrown them completely off course in this match.
Instead they had the courage and character to overcome the endless comings and goings. “In those circumstances I was incredibly proud of the effort we made,” said the Gloucester director of rugby, David Humphreys. “We know how good Wasps are but we defended very, very well and that was the basis of our win. Our first-half performance was good, our commitment in the second was excellent.”
Billy Twelvetreees, the England outcast, and Bill Meakes, the Australian, led the remorseless defensive effort that blunted the Wasps rapier. Gloucester’s try, by the outstanding Richard Hibbard, which was prosaic in comparison with Wade’s, was the very least they deserved. Gloucester had had so much of the first half, both in possession and territory, that to reach the interval with an advantage of only seven points could have been accounted a significant — and potentially dangerous — failure given the firepower at Wasps’ command. On the other hand, the Premiership’s team of the moment had a peculiar look about them, probably based on how they have swept everyone else aside lately, that it would simply happen when they chose. With the one exception, it did not.
In the process their six-match winning run ended flatly, as well as the six-match winning run against Gloucester since September 2012. A year ago Wasps stood fourth on 41 points, then fell away. Now, even after this defeat, they are one place and two points better off. Gloucester, the forwards as well as Twelvetrees and Meakes, did a fine job in closing down Wasps’ brilliant counterattackers.
For the time being Wade had no space, nor did the Piutau brothers and Frank Halai, the imports from New Zealand who have made Wasps such a menace. Gloucester made the only first-half breakthrough from the series of attacking opportunities that were so laboured in their execution it was a wonder any of them brought the desired result. Being Gloucester’s most penetrative runner, it was appropriate that Charlie Sharples made the initial thrust.
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But it then needed multi-phases — Matt Kvesic and Meakes helping keep the whole thing going — before Hibbard finally made the line. Laidlaw’s conversion followed an earlier penalty and preceded a bad miss just before half-time.
By then Jimmy Gopperth had pulled back a penalty for Wasps from virtually their only incursion deep enough into Gloucester’s half to have any sort of scoring chance. Sure enough, the second half had hardly begun when Wasps at last freed Wade.
When he received from Charles Piutau he was in the Wasps half but distance was no object, as the trail of failed tacklers showed. Gopperth’s conversion of Wade’s exceptional try levelled the scores. In view of their recent all-conquering form, they might have been expected to push on from here.
But Laidlaw’s second penalty put Gloucester back in front and, though the Scotland captain missed another from long range, it turned out that his kick was enough to clinch the win and ensure they were able to survive an aborted Gopperth drop goal.
Star man: Richard Hibbard (Gloucester)
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Gloucester: Cook (Burns 6min; Braley 66min); Sharples, Meakes, Twelvetrees, Purdy (Trinder 20miun); Hook, Laidlaw (capt); McAllister (Thomas 32min), Hibbard (Dawidiuk 66min), Afoa (Doran-Jones 68min), Savage (Galarza 63min), Thrush, Kalamafoni, Kvesic, Moriarty (Ludlow 63min)
Wasps: Miller; Wade, C Piutau, S Piutau, Halai; Gopperth, Robson; Mullan (capt; McIntyre 63min), Shervington (Johnson 57min), Cooper-Woolley (Cittadini 57min), Cannon (Davies 52min) Myall, Jones, Smith, Hughes (Rider 70min