Wasps Amateurs 32 - 15 Datchworth

With four teams being relegated from London North West 3 this year, Wasps knew they had to beat Datchworth to stay out of the relegation zone. From the kick off it looked as if Datchworth might have the edge on their opponents, absorbing the Wasps attack with a strong defence. This resulted in the away side turning the ball over and working their way into the Wasps 22. A solid scrum on the home side's 5 meter gave Captain Matt Francis the chance to pick from the base, pop the ball to Scrum half Tom Bennett who in turn drew the blindside winger and passed to Tom Nesbitt-Larking, who ran in for the first score of the game.

From the restart, Datchworth were quickly put under pressure by the home side. Wasps played to their strengths, using the strong carriers in their pack to pick and go around the fringes of the breakdown. This pressure led to Datchworth giving away senseless penalties and as the penalty count increased so did the amount of points Wasps had. The Wasps number 10 slotted a couple of penalties to give the home side the lead. Further penalties meant Wasps kept the pressure on Datchworth and their defence finally gave way for the Wasps midfield to breakthrough and score under the posts. This left the score 13-5 at half time.

Datchworth knew what they had to do in the second half to win the game, cut out the stupid penalties. However this was easier said than done, consecutive penalties gave Wasps a lineout in the Datchworth 22. The ball was thrown to the back and sipped out to the midfield. Recycling the ball quickly the Wasps scrum half reversed play and lazy defence from Datchworth gave their winger the opportunity to run up the touchline and score in the corner.

Captain Francis gave a stern team talk under the posts to try and rally his troops. However at this point, Datchworth were playing like they didn't want to be there and again their lazy defence led to Wasps scoring 2 more try's.

The game was now out of reach for Datchworth and the only thing they could play for was a try bonus point. This thought seemed to inspire Datch into upping their intensity for the first time in the game. The forwards secured a line out in the opponents 22 and a driving maul collapsed, leaving Dave Bartlett to capitalise on the ball slipping out the side of the ruck for an easy touchdown.

A third score was secured by Captain Francis by picking from the base of a scrum. This spurred Datchworth into thinking they could get the bonus point and pressure in the opponents 22 gave them this chance. In the dyeing seconds of them game and Meters out from the Wasps try line, Tom Wood stepped in at scrum half to ship the ball out and unfortunately knocked the ball forward. The game ended with Datchworth taking nothing from the game.

There is a break in the calendar next week giving Dacthwroth 2 weeks to work on their problems before their next fixture against London New Zealand where they have to be on top of their game to secure a win.

Match report written by Tom Wood.