Vainikolo redeemed by Wasps' generosity

Gloucester 24-19 Wasps
Lesley Vainikolo
Gloucester's Lesley Vainikolo in action during his side's defeat of Wasps in the EDF Energy Cup. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

After a month of the Premiership season, this was a chance for teams that have not exactly started with aplomb to relaunch their campaigns. It is the way the seasons goes: a month of Guinness, a couple of rounds of EDF, and then the Heineken Cup, with each chunk offering its own new dawn, its fresh point of restart.

Wasps at this rate will go through the cliches tenfold, such is their inability to reproduce the form that made them champions last season, the rhythms that sustained them as the perennially formidable force of the English club game. They were in poorly condition coming into this competition - they withdrew Danny Cipriani from the bench in the morning - and they are no better now. They still need a boost from someone... anyone

Gloucester have not exactly been models of high achievement either, and they started as if it was they, not their visitors, who were in a trough. They threw long into a line-out, even though the trees behind the Shed were already bending in the wind, and watched Wasps steal the wobbling ball and pass it down the line.

Mark Robinson did more than watch the ball's progress. Shrewd old Kiwi that the scrum-half is, he judged where it might end up and set off for that point. The ball, thanks to Dominic Waldouck straightening the line in the narrowest of channels, duly went where it was supposed to, and Robinson scooped it up a yard from the line and went through Lesley Vainikolo's challenge to score.

It looked bad for the home team and for the wing, who had been in and out of the starting line-up in the Premiership. But whereas Robinson found himself increasingly uncomfortable behind a pack that undid every bit of good work with a string of conceded penalties and unforced errors, Vainikolo grew in stature.

Even before he was required, Gloucester had stabilised themselves, Willie Walker landing a penalty and Ryan Lamb dropping a goal for a narrow lead. Then came Vainikolo's chance. Gloucester surged forward, first through the middle, then towards the opposite wing, before Lamb placed a kick behind what remained of the defence for his man on the left wing to chase the ball, stop, write a postcard, drink half a cup of tea and then touch it down. Wasps have built a formidable reputation on stinginess and cruelty, on shutting down their opponents in an instant, but this was altogether too generous.

Lawrence Dallaglio has of course gone. It might be said that for the last two years of his career he was in such decline that he was not always present in body. But his mind was always there, forcing others to obey his will. His leadership is missing.

So is the defensive contribution of Fraser Waters, a more unsung general at the heart of the Wasps success story. Whatever system the Premiership champions are trying to develop in the absence of the centre, it lacks the bite of old. Wasps have not rattled the bones of their opponents this season.

They did manage to score a freakish try to cut the deficit before half time. At a ruck near the line they seemed to lose control of the ball, a touch of try-anxiety close to the score that might transform their season.

James Haskell eventually took control of the situation and telescoped his arms over the line, but there was enough doubt about the build-up that referee Martin Fox referred it to the television match official. Replays revealed at least one knock on, but such infringements lie beyond the remit of the reviewer. The elastic finish by Haskell was good; the try was awarded.

A penalty apiece left the teams a point apart at the interval, but it would be along time before Wasps threatened again. The wind grew and the rain began to fall, plunging the game into a general scruffiness.

Gloucester did enough before the weather and rugby deteriorated to make an about-turn almost impossible. A cut-out pass - possibly a tad forward - by Lamb put Vainikolo clear. This was surely a time for the wing to indulge in his speciality, the slaughter of defenders before him. But Lesley displayed his delicate side and placed a sweet little pass into the arms of Walker. It was rather touching.

Penalties were exchanged, errors were repeated, offences compounded, ground gained and surrendered. It was very untidy, but at least Dave Walder's penalty - he came on to replace Rob Hoadley - meant that the game could yet be snatched. The assault never really came. The sting seems to have gone out of these Wasps.

Kingsholm 7,864

Gloucester Walker; Foster, Adams, Tindall, Vainikolo; Lamb, R Lawson; Dickinson, Azam (S Lawson 49), Young, Bortolami (Eustace 47), Brown, Satala (Buxton 52), Hazell, Strokosch

Tries Vainikolo, Walker Con Walker Pens Walker 3 Drop goal Lamb

Wasps Mitchell; Odejobi, Hoadley (Walder 56), Waldouck, Voyce; Staunton, Robinson (Reddan 47); French (Beech 74), Webber, Holford, Shaw, Birkett, Haskell, Betsen (Leo 64), Worsley

Tries Robinson, Haskell Pens Staunton 2, Walder

Referee Martin Fox

Today's best video

Today in pictures