Haskell sees red as Quins seal famous comeback
James Haskell could be in danger of missing the start of the Six Nations Championship after he was sent off for a dangerous tackle as Wasps succumbed to a remarkable collapse that has all but ended their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions Cup.
Haskell, who was called up into England’s training camp in Brighton two weeks ago, was shown a red card in the 76th minute for making contact with his shoulder to the head of Harlequins centre Jamie Roberts, opening the door for Harlequins to snatch a dramatic victory with an injury-time try by James Chisholm.
Dai Young, the Wasps director of rugby, conceded that Haskell is likely to receive a ban for the red card but refused to blame his flanker for the defeat, claiming his side should have won the game three times before the incident.
World Rugby guidelines state that the entry point for suspensions for dangerous tackles to the head is six weeks, although Young insisted it was likely to be less than that as he claimed there had been no malice in Haskell’s collision. England open their Six Nations campaign against Italy in Rome on Feb 4.
“I’m not doing an Arsene Wenger, I haven’t had time to really look at, but if it’s a shoulder to the face or head he will get banned,” said Young. “You can’t hide away from that.
“Unfortunately he might get a couple of weeks, but hopefully it’s not too long. But there was certainly no intent, he just tried to get off the line to shut the pass down and there wasn’t much wrong with the timing.
“It’s where the shoulder makes contact and that will determine whether he gets banned or for how long.”
Haskell took to social media last night to apologise for the tackle.
“What’s done is done, but just want to publicly apologise to @Jamiehuwroberts” he said on Twitter.
“Never my intention to hurt another player. Got my height wrong, paid the price, which happens. You know me, never one to do anything subtly. Credit to @Harlequins and apologies to @WaspsRugby fans.”
John Kingston, the Harlequins direc- tor of rugby, said that Roberts had been talking in the changing room after the match after going off for a head injury assessment but the victory may have come at a greater price, with England full-back Mike Brown sent to hospital for a scan last night after complaining of blurred vision.
“Browny’s gone for a precautionary, he’s got a bang on the eye so he was reporting slight blurred vision so we just wanted to make sure he’s all right with that,” said Kingston. “He’s gone to get a check-up.”
Harlequins No 8 Renaldo Bothma was also taken to hospital after suffering a suspected broken arm.
The collective damage of the defeat to Wasps’ season is likely to equally as painful. Young’s side had looked on course to set up a potential winner takes-all encounter against Ulster at the Ricoh Arena next Sunday when the raced into a 21-point lead in the first half with tries by Kyle Eastmond, Nizaam Carr – while Lewis Boyce was in the sin bin – and Ashley Johnson.
Quins struck back with tries by Ross Chisholm and the excellent James Lang but they looked only consolation scores when Brendan Macken powered over for Wasps’ fourth try early in the second half.
The introduction of Marcus Smith, the 18 year-old fly-half for Quins, however, sparked a sensational revival and with tries by Danny Care, Elia Elia and then the decisive touchdown by Chisholm left Wasps stunned.
Young’s side, who at least picked up two match points, now trail Ulster, who defeated La Rochelle at Ravenhill yesterday afternoon by five points and
must beat the Irish province with a bonus point to have any chance of reaching the knockout stages.
Young however conceded that his side’s hopes of qualifying were effectively over.
“I think it’s over for us now,” Young added. “I said we had to win both of these last two games and probably needed nine points. Two points here isn’t enough.
“We’ll want to win against Ulster and if a miracle happens then happy days, but miracles don’t tend to happen too much in Coventry.
“We got what we deserved. Five or six guys showed a real lack of appetite to defend. Teams are scoring points against us far too easily.
“Fair play to Quins, they showed a real hunger and desire in the last five minutes, but we should have been out of sight by then. We found a way to lose it.”
Had Danny Cipriani landed a relatively simple penalty, moments before Haskell was shown red, Wasps may still have found a way to win despite a performance that lacked the defensive robustness and commitment to deliver the fatal blow to a Harlequins side that refused to accept defeat.
Harlequins had seen their hopes of reaching the knockout stages snuffed out by back-to-back defeats by Ulster in December and, despite the late withdrawal of England flanker Chris Robshaw with a minor knock, were determined not to make an easy passage for their Premiership opponents.
“We got what we deserved,” Young added. “We probably won that game three times and let them back in there really. We made some really poor errors which gave them some momentum and we were just not good enough in defence. We showed some quality but not enough fight and fair play to Quins, I think they showed more fight and wanted it a bit more than us. It really hurts me to say that but I honestly believe it. We won’t change our mindset but we are hugely disappointed and we have only got ourselves to blame.”