Any French talent scouts on a clandestine mission to High Wycombe yesterday would have travelled home with cheque-books firmly shut. For lengthy periods this was about as downbeat as Sunday entertainment gets. The only bright spark was Northampton's Ben Foden who, perhaps inevitably, ended up on the losing side courtesy of three penalties from an England squad-mate, Danny Cipriani.
Even Cipriani would admit his team rode their luck to secure the victory which their coach, Shaun Edwards, had deemed essential if they were to retain any hope of making the play-offs. Saints enjoyed huge territorial superiority in the second and third quarters and may have won with something to spare had the fleet-footed Foden, who cut a lovely arc outside Eoin Reddan to score the game's only try just before the hour, not been hauled back off the ball by Dominic Waldouck as he chased a rolling kick ahead.
"Quite clearly he was going to win that race because he was flying," said Jim Mallinder, the Northampton director of rugby. "You'd have thought one of the three officials would have seen it."
Mallinder's frustration was wholly understandable. Tuesdaywill be the second anniversary of Northampton's last away win in the Premiership, a single-point victory over Leicester at Welford Road. Here, their fly-half, Stephen Myler, missed three penalties and the conversion of Foden's score. Nor were the Saints management greatly taken by the performance of the referee, Rob Debney, who awarded them 10 penalties in the first half without reaching for a yellow card. The pink-booted home winger Chris Bishay twice escaped censure for apparently blatant trips and the breakdown was also an area of heated debate.
"There were a number of calls we thought we were very unlucky not to get," said Mallinder. "I'm not moaning, I'm just saying it the way it is."
Wasps were happier to concentrate on the character required to chisel out a result from minimal possession. "There's still a bit of fight in us yet," said Edwards, at the end of a notably tricky week.
The impending departures of James Haskell, Tom Palmer and Riki Flutey, as well as Raphaël Ibanez's retirement, have clearly not stripped away Wasps' cussed edge, which was best exemplified yesterday by Josh Lewsey's muscular endeavour. The defending champions are now eighth, having won eight of their 10 games since the end of November.
Cipriani has featured in almost every game during that revival but, even so, his chances of vaulting straight back into the England team would appear non-existent, given Martin Johnson's decision not to attend this match ahead of Saturday's Six Nations trip to Dublin. If that was a shrewd call given the quality of the spectacle, it was also tacit acknowledgement that Johnson and his coaches require more evidence that their young stand-off has got his groove back. His kicking ratio was a modest 50% and while he slotted in nicely at centre in the latter stages and ran with slightly more freedom, Croke Park is hardly the place to ease anyone gently back into the Test match fray.
If that implies the Premiership is a soft touch, however, these two teams would beg to differ. Following the reverse fixture, the Northampton flanker Neil Best received an 18-week ban for eye-gouging. There were repeated flare-ups throughout this scrappy, acrimonious contest, the majority centred around the England hooker Dylan Hartley, who left the ground on crutches. His fitness will be evaluated over the next couple of days, with Leicester's George Chuter standing by ahead of England's team announcement on Wednesday.
Northampton have denied they have revived their interest in the World Cup-winning South Africa lock Victor Matfield. "I've not spoken to him or his agent so unless something magic happens he's not coming to Saints," said Mallinder.
Conjuring up a Premiership away win before the end of the season has become a far more pressing issue.
London Wasps Van Gisbergen; Bishay (Hoadley, 54; Walder, 59), Waldouck, Lewsey, Voyce; Cipriani, Robinson (Reddan, 54); Payne, Webber (Ward, 80), Barnard (French, h-t), Shaw, Skivington, Birkett, Betsen (capt), Hart (Ellis, 79).
Pens Cipriani 3.
Northampton Foden; Diggin, Clarke, Downey (Mayor, 71), Reihana (capt); Myler, Dickson; Tonga'uiha, Hartley, Murray, Lawes, Kruger, Easter (Fernandez Lobbe, 79), Best, Wilson.
Try Foden.
Referee R Debney (England). Attendance 10,000.
