Wasps waning as arduous season takes its toll

Wasps looked like a team who had had the wind taken out of their sails by Saracens in the European Champions Cup last weekend and never fully got their breath back. Their visits into the Exeter 22 totalled just one; they were a pale reflection of the team who had seen off Exeter in a last-minute European thriller in the quarter-finals only three weeks previously. The side yesterday who were full of power and energy were the one who had had the previous weekend off.

It really fuels Exeter’s ambitions for silverware as Rob Baxter, the Chiefs’ head coach, said after the game: “What I am really pleased with is that we put a bit of pressure on the lads this week, saying these are the type of games we have to turn up and perform in at this stage of the year if we genuinely want to look at ourselves as contenders.”

Contenders is indeed how they look because this result is critical to the end-of-season shake down. The cost of defeat for Wasps will probably be a return back to Sandy Park for the Aviva Premiership play-offs. Exeter are now in second place, two points ahead of Wasps with one game to go; if they beat Harlequins on Saturday, the home draw is secured.

The psychology of that game will be fascinating. It will be Conor O’Shea’s last match in charge at the Twickenham Stoop and that will not be short on emotional content; simultaneously, Harlequins will have one eye on their European Challenge Cup final six days later.

Wasps at least will have a weekend off to prepare for that semi-final, home or away, after they have faced London Irish at home in their final regular- season game on Saturday. You could not fault attitude or commitment and, given the amount of possession that Exeter had, Wasps’ defence was strong. Yet all three Exeter tries, as well-worked as they may have been, involved players slipping off tackles that would normally have been made.

Exeter were not short on heroes. Luke Cowan-Dickie was a handful all day; Dave Ewers was so high on workrate and ball-carrying that Baxter could not resist chucking in a little verbal reminder to Eddie Jones, the England head coach, that he believes his man to be worthy of international inclusion.

The surprise about Exeter was that one of their most reliable weapons only fired blanks. The first half was tight, although largely because Exeter refused to take any points from their own penalties and to kick for the corners instead. Five times they ignored the three-pointers on offer and went in search of better. They have a phenomenal record for scoring from lineout drives, but Wasps know this as well as anyone and had clearly prepped hard on their maul defence.

That is to their credit. The real frustration for Young was that when they did have possession, they did not achieve much with it. There was a period in the second half when they did have the ball and seemed shot of ideas for what to do with it. It is not only intensity levels but their old creativity that he needs them to rediscover.

The most telling strike in the first half, therefore, was an individual try by Olly Woodburn, the Exeter wing, after Will Chudley, the scrum half, had attacked down the blind-side. Chudley fed Woodburn who had to break the tackle of Frank Halai and then tiptoe, off balance, down the left wing without putting so much as a toe into touch. Delicately done.

Once Exeter were one try to the better, the sniff of success never left them. They returned for the second half determined to kick their penalties, took one three-pointer from Gareth Steenson and then accumulated two more tries, through Phil Dollman and Jack Nowell.

The tries were a reflection of Exeter pressure and Wasps’ fatigue. If this game was indeed a curtain-raiser to a semi-final in three weeks’ time, the big play-off game will look very different.