Which of these ancient rivals took more from the season’s opening fixture is hard to say.
London Wasps had the comfort of a win but Harlequins, in such adverse circumstances, emerged with huge credit on Saturday. They offered constructive rugby and, had they not played virtually the entire match with 14 men, would surely have started a season of rehabilitation with victory.
The loss of George Robson after 38 seconds was crucial to the outcome. Two of Wasps’ three tries were, arguably, the result of simply having one more player on the field and the penalty try late in the game came when Harlequins were out on their feet. But the efforts of Nick Easter, Chris Robshaw and Will Skinner to fill the void were wholly admirable against a Wasps side that will want to finish more clinically as the season wears on.
“We could have tried to slow the game down but we want to have a go,” John Kingston, the Harlequins head coach, said. “If you are going to die in such circumstances, there’s no point dying a slow death. When we’re on our game we ask huge questions of people.”
Yet the potential of Wasps is self-evident. They have a host of England and Lions players to return and they have a potent back line to develop, in which Tom Varndell started his new life in London in the best possible way, with two tries. Nor will Wasps heap too much on Danny Cipriani’s shoulders; at Twickenham on Saturday they asked him to run the game without the additional responsibility of kicking goals, a job that Mark van Gisbergen accomplished well.
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“Gissie has proved himself a quality kicker on this ground,” Tony Hanks, the director of rugby, said. “That allowed Danny to be more involved in getting us organised for the next phase. It’s part of his progression coming back into the team and, as the game went on, he attacked the line a bit more.”
But Van Gisbergen’s success underscored the failure of Nick Evans, a match-winner last season for Harlequins, to do likewise. He missed an early conversion but, crucially, two second-half penalty goals that would have given Harlequins renewed hope. The first would have restored their lead, the second would have put them within a point of their opponents, but Harlequins are finding that, when you are down in so many other ways, even Lady Luck turns her back.
Scorers: London Wasps: Tries: Varndell 2 (18min, 38), penalty try (75). Conversion: Van Gisbergen. Penalty goals: Van Gisbergen 3 (25, 31, 61). Harlequins: Tries: Monye (13), Camacho (19). Conversion: N Evans. Penalty goal: N Evans (28).
Scoring sequence (London Wasps first): 0-5, 5-5, 5-12, 8-12, 8-15, 11-15, 16-15 (half-time), 19-15, 26-15.
London Wasps: M van Gisbergen; T Varndell, B Jacobs, S Kefu, D Lemi; D Cipriani, J Simpson (rep: W Fury, 78); T Payne, R Webber, G Bocca (rep: B Broster, 41), G Skivington, R Birkett, J Hart (rep: H Ellis, 77), S Betsen, D Ward-Smith.
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Harlequins: U Monye; D Strettle, G Tiesi, J Turner-Hall (sin-bin, 80), G Comacho (rep: G Lowe, 77); N Evans, D Care; C Jones, G Botha (rep: T Fuga, 52), M Lambert (rep: J Andress, 61), J Percival (rep: J Evans, 52), G Robson (sent off, 1), C Robshaw (rep: T Guest, 69), W Skinner, N Easter.
Referee: D Rose.
Attendance: 67,684.
Blood-bin: Joe Simpson received a bloody nose from Robson’s head-butt, but was not replaced until the 78th minute.