Honours go to Wasps’ big hitters

EXETER CHIEFS may have been honoured by the Queen this week but it was it was Wasps who drew the sharpened knights’ sword in Coventry.

Rob Baxter OBE and Joe Simmonds MBE arrived in the Midlands with a clean sweep of bonus-point victories in the Premiership this season, but Wasps refused to stand to attention.

They delivered a statement in physicality, condemning Exeter to their first defeat since October. In the very first play, Jack Willis threw himself into the heart of a maul to steal the ball. One by one, the hosts ground down the Chiefs’ cogs until they came to a screeching halt.

‘You’ve got 15 moving parts out there and we’ve been successful because our 15 moving parts are pretty well oiled,’ said beaten coach Baxter. ‘They know their role in the machine. We move forward down the field in a relatively structured and organised way. You don’t need to have many parts of that machine not quite aligned for that to become tough. When the opposition have got 15 guys more aligned than you, then it becomes even tougher.’

Led by Joe Launchbury, the Wasps front-five beat Exeter at their own game. The tap-and-go penalty was brought back into fashion by Baxter’s side last season but Wasps scored their first try, through James Gaskell, using their own version of the kamikaze charge. Willis suffered a hip spasm in the process, but the Wasps replacements did not let the standards slip.

Big hits from Tom West and Kieran Brookes repelled Exeter’s attack and, after a Lima Sopoaga penalty, the champions were scoreless at half-time for just the fourth time in three years.

Chiefs flanker Richard Capstick hitch-kicked through for a lone try, but that was the only score his side managed. While Exeter were missing their England internationals, Wasps welcomed back most of their Test stars.

After Paolo Odogwu powered through, Launchbury and Dan Robson combined for Gaskell to score his second. ‘It’s a long time since we’ve picked Gaskell at six and it’s been a long time since we picked a pack as big as that,’ said Wasps boss Lee Blackett.

‘People underestimate how good a pack we’ve got. We wanted to really physically front up and we generally did that.’

The Chiefs were squeezed back and Wasps turned the screw. Replacement prop Simon McIntyre bundled over for the bonus point try that moved Wasps back up towards the top-four. But they were not finished there.

Wasps had sharpened the sword and, with the clock reading 82.40, McIntyre went over again for one more twist of the blade.