Neither side had anything to play for here and it showed. An amusing first half deteriorated into a mind-numbing second, where two of English rugby’s fallen giants attempted to outdo each other in contriving ways not to win. And at the end the old inquest into where it has all gone wrong was given an airing.
“It’s the quality of the opposition,” said Dai Young, Wasps’ director of rugby. “Look at Leinster. They’re missing five Lions and they can still pick 15 internationals. I’ve coached [in the Pro14] and you have two teams, one for your big games and one for the others. It’s not my opinion, it’s factual. You look at how many games they play, the English boys are asked to do a lot more than the Irish.”
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Certainly fatigue was writ large across the endgame here. In the end it was entirely fitting that Rhys Priestland stepped up to kick the winning penalty after yet another innocuous offence at a scrum had invited him to the tee. Last-minute wins do not come much less inspiring than that.
This was a shame because the match had started as the sort of nothing game that might incline the teams to express themselves. With both so hopelessly adrift, a good crowd could look forward, at least, to studying the form of various internationals who might hope to feature in the Six Nations.
First up was Wales’s Taulupe Faletau, returning after 13 weeks out with a broken arm. He cruised through a gap in Wasps’ midfield, swatting aside Juan de Jongh and accelerating away as languidly as seems humanly possible for anyone, let alone those whose habitat is the brutality of the back row. He found Max Green on his shoulder, who scampered home.
Nathan Hughes, another back-row of Pacific heritage, showcased rather different qualities five minutes later. Wasps held the edge up front. They kicked to the corner three times in one series of penalties, finishing when Hughes somehow forced his long arm free to dot down on the line.
Then it was over to Zach Mercer, another back-row auditioning for the Six Nations, to take a turn on the catwalk. He has serious pace and power, which would serve any team well, international or otherwise. Max Wright’s delayed pass released him on a long run to the line in front of his home crowd, the kind of adrenaline surge that might incline anyone into instinctive celebration. Despite Bath falling foul of the premature celebration this season, he could not resist raising his arms swan-style as he galloped home. He got away with this one and Bath took a 12-10 lead into the break.
Yet another penalty, their ninth, yielded the points with which Wasps retook the lead just after the resumption. It also signalled the meandering of the match into indifference, the pointlessness of it all beginning to dawn. Bath won a penalty at a scrum but they slavishly followed the fashion these days of turning down points in favour of the corner. Perhaps they wanted the practice of a set piece. They need it. The ball went west, as did the prospect of any points.
Wasps obliged on the hour with a show of indiscipline of their own, Lima Sopoaga’s shoulder charge as obvious a yellow as any. Priestland finally elected to take the points and with them the lead. Bath could do nothing with the one-man advantage. Worse, another scrum penalty allowed Rob Miller to kick Wasps into the lead once more.
In the last 10 minutes Billy Searle missed an opportunity to extend that lead – from a scrum penalty, of course. Faletau and Francois Louw butchered a chance for Bath to do so with a more inspiring type of score, before Darren Atkins did the same. So it fell to Priestland to clinch the win in the most fitting manner. Ben Harris did not drive straight at a scrum – apparently. But by then no one really cared.