Premiership reaction - Saturday
September 06 2008
Wasps boss Ian McGeechan felt poor refereeing cost Wasps a bonus point as the Guinness Premiership champions made a torrid start to life without Lawrence Dallaglio.
Wasps were dispatched 26-14 with final-quarter tries from Tom Rees and Eoin Reddan sparing their blushes on the scoreboard after Irish had amassed an unassailable lead.
But McGeechan was dismayed by the decision not to award a late penalty try for Peter Hewat's tug on Joe Worsley which denied Wasps any tangible reward for their late comeback.
"In the end we could have scored three tries. The touch judge had put his flag down," he said.
"When your attacker is pulled back by the last defender, it's a pretty strong argument for a penalty try.
"I don't know who made the decision, whether it was the touch judge or referee, but the advice was wrong.
"We came back well, scoring two good tries and if we had got one there we would have had the bonus point.
"Irish were hanging on at the end but when you have built up that sort of lead it doesn't really matter.
"A bonus point would have been fair reward for our endeavour in the second half."
Dallaglio retired last season and Wasps clearly missed their talisman, who would not have been impressed with what he witnessed from the sidelines.
"We have to make the most of the times when we have the whole squad together but we didn't do that today," said McGeechan.
"It was a sub-standard performance and we're all very disappointed. We conceded a couple of easy scores."
Forwards Chris Hala'ufia and Richard Thorpe plundered soft tries at the line-out to help Irish register a convincing victory.
But director of rugby Toby Booth was as satisfied by the refusal to concede a bonus point as the result itself.
"If we had been more clinical we could have been further in front at times," he said.
"Wasps came back at us and you expect that from them so to show the mentality to shut them out was fantastic.
"We're trying to get tougher in terms of our mindset so to deny them the bonus point was very pleasing.
"That was as an encouraging display as we could have asked for at this stage of the season.
"Sometimes denying the opposition a bonus point is as important as securing yours, so we're very pleased."
Meanwhile, Quins star Danny Care was delighted to help David Strettle start his quest for an England recall with a try just 53 seconds into Harlequins' 24-21 victory over Saracens in the second game of the double-header at Twickenham.
Strettle was dropped from the senior England squad after a difficult summer tour to New Zealand, both on and off the field, but he took less than a minute to make his mark on the new season.
Care attacked the blindside from the back of a five-metre scrum and Strettle stepped his way past the last man to score with his first touch of the ball.
"I was chuffed for Strets. He is a world-class winger and he should be playing for England," said Care.
"He had no space at all but a step and a try - that is what he can do week-in and week-out. When you have got Strets on the outside he is always going to score from there.
"Hopefully he can build on that and get back into the England team."
Care had a key role to play in Ugo Monye's second-half try, claiming a long line-out and slipping a deft inside ball for the winger to score under the posts.
"I like it when we are playing attacking rugby. That is what we have at Quins in abundance. We love throwing the ball around and scoring tries," he added.
"It was a great start to get the four points. We knew we could get it if we played well and we showed the pride and determination in the shirt to pull that through in the end."
Quins struggled to win any line-out ball in the first half but managed to hold an 8-6 lead at the interval with debutant fly-half Nick Evans slotting one penalty to Glen Jackson's two.
Saracens scored just after half-time with a 60-metre solo try from Adam Powell and then Neil de Kock kept them in touch heading into the closing stages.
But Quins, helped by 11 points from Evans, held on for the victory and boss Dean Richards put it down to his side's increasing maturity.
"We hardly won a line-out in the first half but we defended very strongly. There are a lot of people who are playing for each other out there," said Richards.
"We will look at our line-outs and see what went wrong but otherwise I thought it was a good day.
"Two years ago we wouldn't have won that game because of the decision-making in certain areas. We made some quite mature decisions today at the right times and that is the sign if a side that is getting better."
Saracens director of rugby Eddie Jones was not disappointed his side failed to attempt a drop-goal in the closing stages that would have secured a draw.
The Australian was content with securing a losing bonus point and felt his side learned some valuable lessons from their opening day performance.
"We would have liked to have won the game. If the field goal would have won the game we would go for it. I think the intention was right," said Jones.
"We showed a lot of character and a lot of poise to get back into the game and that was a good sign.
"We got one point out of that game. We would have liked to get four but we learned more about ourselves today and we will be better next week."