Wasps left regretting wasted opportunities
LEE Blackett bemoaned his side’s misgivings in front of the Lyon line as Wasps’ hopes of a first European Final in 15 years were left scattered all over the Matmut Stadium de Gerland.
The head coach voiced his frustration at what might have been as outstanding Lyon fly-half Leo Berdeu made the visitors pay for bad execution and a lack of finishing power, to earn the French side a narrow Challenge Cup semi-final win.
Berdeu crossed for a try and amassed 15 points in total as the French Top 14 side celebrated reaching their first major cup final appearance in 89 years.
Despondent Wasps boss Blackett said: “We were the better team for large parts of the game but didn’t get the rewards when we were down near their line.
“You can take it when you feel like you were beaten by the better side but, no disrespect to Lyon, I think we controlled large parts of that game.
“You come up against a team that’s playing really well in the Top 14 and going well in Europe and you end up frustrated because you didn’t win.
“The amount of times we got into their 22, we needed to come away with more points because we controlled field position well. But then we made too many errors in the air and lost that field position and allowed them into the game.”
With temperatures pushing 80F inside the stadium, it was always going to be a battle of the fittest as well as the most skilful. Wasps carved out an 8-3 lead at the break courtesy of Dan Robson’s solo try but they could and should have scored more points.
Scrum-half Robson produced the best moment of the half with a piece of quick thinking and equally quick footwork from a well-worked line-out. He darted through a gap in the
defence and over the line for the opening try.
Berdeu kicked his side’s first points when Wasps were caught offside while Jimmy Gopperth responded with his own penalty when prop Sebastien Taufifenua deliberately knocked on with the visitors on the ascendancy.
Wasps were on the back foot when Lyon scored the try of the game. A flowing move saw the ball swept from one end of the field to the other with Berdeu finishing off the move from hooker Guillaume Marchand’s pass.
Tempers flared for a while and Lyon were
penalised for instigating the pushing and shoving match. Gopperth nudged Wasps ahead with the three points but the lead lasted just two minutes as Lyon replacement hooker, youngster Yanis Charcosset, reached over from short range after the hosts had applied the pressure.
Berdeu added the extras and, after missing one penalty, managed to kick another attempt as the game began to slip away from Wasps.
Dan Frost almost gave Wasps renewed hope when darting through a gap and over the Lyon line but the try was ruled out for a
knock on in the build up by Francois Hougaard. Replacement wing Zach Kibirige was unable to finish off a move when he burst down the left wing and kicked ahead only to be denied by a diving Davit Niniashvili.
Wasps kept fighting and Gopperth joined in a driving maul from a lineout and fell to the ground to claim the score. He converted himself and Wasps powered forward again to try and get that all important late try but more handling errors let them down and it was too little too late to save the visitors from a heart-breaking loss.