Well, it was all very peculiar. A game that began as nothing better than poor then meandered through a period of quirkiness and finally burst into a pulsating belter. Two sides that had previously fluked their ways to wins deep into injury-time suddenly found themselves scrambling to a draw in those same desperate moments of overtime.
The first phase spoke for itself. Nothing constructive happened. And then suddenly little bits and pieces of fun began to appear among all the dross. First, there was the sight of Trevor Leota coming off second best in a tackle. Usually the burly hooker puts his targets in A&E, but on this occasion he found Bath's new signing from Montferrand Alessio Golasso trundling his way. A large piece of the Auvergne collided with a chunky outcrop of Samoa, Golasso won and 10 minutes later Trevor wandered off shaking his head, which may not be the best thing for concussion.
Second, there was the sin-binning of Dan Lyle. He interfered with the ball, or lay offside or something, and was penalised. He decided to mount a theatrical defence, which did not impress referee and policeman Nigel Whitehouse. In accordance with existing powers to administer on-the-spot justice for overacting, Lyle was shown the yellow card, which caused the son of a two-star general to turn on the melodramatics.
In the remaining minutes of the half, while their American back-rower was absent, Wasps were camped on the Bath line. Kenny Logan, not having one of his most elegant afternoons, dropped the ball with the line at his mercy. There was another knock-on near the posts. Shane Roiser was held near the line, as was Josh Lewsey. Finally, when it seemed Bath might have held on without yielding a point, a hanging cross-kick from Alex King was well taken by Lewsey for the try.
This prompted Bath to mount their most probing attack of the game. Enter Mike Catt, back in the game and bound to turn around his club's fortunes. He threw out a long trademark pass, which... was intercepted by Roiser. Off went the wing, with Catt in hot pursuit. Rather heroically Catt reined in his man, only to slide down his torso to the turf.
Roiser was off again. Only to be halted again. This time it was his hamstring. Fortunately, Lewsey, a model of honed fitness (Clive Woodward used to make him take his shirt off, and say to his squad: 'You should all look like this') had remained in support and ran in for his second try. And then came the second half. It wasn't pure quality but it had enough authentic drama to keep even Lyle happy. In fact, he was richly involved in the closing scene. But first things first.
Bath cut the nasty nine-point deficit with a penalty by their Australian (via Exeter) Chris Malone. This was more than wiped out by Wasps' next move. Rob Howley, all smoothness and brain in his international retirement, escaped the clutches of the young terrier Gareth Cooper, who has more than half an eye on the master's Welsh No9 shirt, and prepared to give a try-scoring pass to Phil Greening.
The shaven-headed one was back in the front row, having started in the back, thanks to some sort of disciplinary action against repetitive penalty syndrome, that old rugby rash. Greening was about to receive said pass when his shirt was tugged by David Barnes. Result: penalty try and a healthy Wasps lead.
Then, strike me down, the Bath of old. A counterattack was launched by Simon Danielli, and Mike Tindall crashed through to score. Mounting pressure thereafter brought Wasps out in their rash again. Malone slotted two more penalties.
Then, two minutes into stoppage time, Bath took the lead. Catt caught and Voyce ran. And ran. Danny Grewcock flew, yes flew, in support. From the ruck the ball went wide and Lyle stretched out telescopically for a try in the corner. Brilliant stuff with seconds left.
Those instants remaining were just long enough for Alex King to catch a bobbling ball from the restart - from a Lyle knock-on - and plop over a peach of a drop goal. Brilliance squared. All square.
Bath: Catt; Danielli, Maggs, Tindall, Voyce; Malone, Cooper; Barnes, Humphreys, Galasso (Mallett 61), Beattie (Lloyd 71), Grewcock (capt), G Thomas, Lyle, N Thomas.
Wasps: Lewsey; Roiser (Sampson ht), Abbott, Denney, Logan; King, Howley; Dowd (Green 53), Leota (Volley 23), Molloy (Dowd 61), Shaw, Beardshaw (Birkett 64), Worsley, Greening, Dallaglio (capt).
Referee : N Whitehouse (Wales).
