Heineken Cup Title For Wasps

A crowd of 81,076 saw London Wasps overcome the odds and claim the Heineken Cup with a 25-9 win over raging hot favourites Leicester Tigers at Twickenham today.

And least there be any doubts, the London club were full value for their victory, dominating the game from minute one and quite amazingly keeping the favourites tryless throughout.

Alex King kicked Wasps into the lead in the fourth minute but it lasted all of three minutes before Andy Goode replied with an easy kick from in front of the posts.
Then a wonderful piece of inventiveness from Raphael Ibanez sent Eoin Reddan scurrying over for the opening try from a Waps lineout on the Leicester 22.

A silly block from Fraser Waters on the restart led to a penalty that Goode converted but then another clever lineout ploy, Ibanez throwing short this time to Simon Shaw gave Wasps their second try, Ibanez the scorer but Goode landed his third penalty in the 38th minute to leave his side trailing 13-9 at half-time.

Within a minute of the restart Wasps had extended their lead when King knocked over a penalty and Leicester really should have cancelled that out almost immediately but Goode was wide when it seemed easier to score.

A 48th minute 35 metre King penalty put Wasps 19-9 in front and at this stage Leicester looked rattled and they immediately replaced Darryl Gibson with Ollie Smith while Wasps took off Lawrence Dallaglio to be replaced by James Haskell.

King’s drop-goal in the 53rd mniute pushed the Wasps lead out to 13 points (22-9) and as Leicester sought to claw it back they looked to the brawn of AlesanaTuilagi and Seru Rabeni to beat their way forward. And if they did they were met by uncompromising Wasps defence.

Twice in succession Reddan was penalised for a crooked feed and on the second occasion, under desperate pressure metres from their line Wasps turned the ball over Leicester possession, won the penalty and cleared their lines.

Ian Humphreys replaced Goode and saved a certain try in the 72nd minute but Wasps maintained their extraordinary workrate and King landed a 72nd minute penalty from that try saver to put Wasps two converted tries clear and game over.