ELLIOT MESS
Daly blunder chucks points to Saracens
Saracens 29
Wasps 6
WASPS skipper Elliot Daly held his hands up after his horrific clanger sealed the game for Saracens and lifted them to the top of the table.
Daly, playing at No.13 for Wasps after an autumn at 15 for England, threw a horrendous pass near his own line attempting to find Willie le Roux as his side chased the game.
Wasps were 22- 6 down before Daly’s 72nd-minute meltdown and they might not have won – but this wrapped it up as Nick Isiekwe pounced to score Sarries’ second try.
It was almost identical to David Campese’s howler that cost Australia the 1989 series against the British & Irish Lions when he gifted Ieuan Evans a try.
Campo has never lived that down and the tape still gets brought out at rugby dinners. If Daly is unlucky, his Campese moment will be replayed a few times too.
But Wasps boss Dai Young refused to blame his captain for the day for the defeat and revealed the 26-yearold had fronted up to his mates.
Young said: “Elliot came in and apologised to the players. We didn’t lose the game through that mistake but it doesn’t help.
“We were under pressure to try and play and mistakes happen.
“You can’t fault the effort but that’s like tapping the milkman on the back for delivering the milk. That’s part and parcel but it’s frustrating when you see some basic errors that don’t allow you to play the rugby you want to play. I’m not happy with many parts of our game.”
Sarries could not believe their eyes when they looked at the scoreboard at half-time showing just a 9-3 lead after dominating possession with most of their big guns back from England duty.
Champs
They did not score a try for an hour, through Jamie George who had one disallowed earlier, but the boot of Alex Lozowski kept them in business and the champs refused to panic.
Lozowski, binned by England last week, scored 19 points playing at 13 after starring on the wing last week as his side geared up for their Champions Cup double- header against Cardiff by remaining undefeated since April 1.
Boss Mark Mccall said: “He is the kind of player everyone wants to have in their squad because Alex can do everything.
“He has played every position in the backline bar scrum-half for us. He wants to play in midfield but when needs must he will help the team.
“I was most pleased by how we didn’t get frustrated by t he scoreboard not reflecting the possession and territory we had. A lot of that was down to how well Wasps defended in the first half. We couldn’t get the quick ball we wanted.
“It has been a really encouraging last three weeks for us – we used almost everyone in the squad, a l ot of younger players have had exposure to games.
“Now the international players are back and there are a couple of players coming back from injury over the next few weeks ahead of these two really important European Cup games.”