The Saracens head coach Wayne Shelford cancelled his squad's scheduled day off today after a performance of such chronic ineptitude and depressingly low skill levels that Wasps won the London exiles' derby with some comfort despite manifest limitations of their own.
Never mind that 74 points and seven tries were scored yesterday, this was no advert for the English club game. The afternoon was a clotted mess of penalties and set-pieces, as if the players were so exhausted by the elaborate pre-match training routines they were put through that their energy was spent.
"Some of the quality of skills in the Premiership is ordinary," said Shelford. "This was a very poor game and the players will be coming in for training on Monday." Asked whether it would be a recovery session he replied: "They will recover after the session. There will be a lot of hard yakka and work on skills."
Saracens led the table after two games, but successive heavy away defeats have sent them out of the top half of the table. Only the bottom two sides, Newcastle and Bristol, have conceded more points and Shelford will need all his reputed powers of motivation to rekindle belief.
Shelford was also disdainful about the contribution of Thomas Castaignède, who was taken off in the third quarter after suffering a high tackle. "He was found wanting after that - perhaps he had a broken ego," said the coach.
Saracens' problems started well away from the full-back position and even though they were level at 16-16 going into first-half stoppage time, their play was shapeless and their threat sporadic.
Wasps were little better until the second period, taking control of the game with 10 unanswered points when their scrum-half Martyn Wood was sent to the sin-bin for a technical offence, including a try from the wing Josh Lewsey who filled Wood's position.
Saracens then lost their replacement second-row Ryan Peacey to the sin-bin and disappeared from the radar. Three tries in the final quarter gave Wasps a bonus point and maintained their unbeaten record at their new home.
"I am not surprised we had such a big victory because Saracens were the bottom-but-one side last season and do not look as if they will be in contention at the top this time," said the Wasps' director of rugby Warren Gatland.
Wasps: Sampson; Lewsey, Abbott, Denney, Logan (Rudd, 64); King (Van Gisbergen, 69), Wood; Dowd, Greening (Gotting, 74), Green (Molloy, 57), Shaw, Birkett (Beardshaw, 64), Worsley, Volley (McCarthy, 69), Dallaglio (capt).
Tries: Dowd 2, Lewsey, Dallaglio, Rudd. Cons: Van Gisbergen 2, Logan, King. Pens: King 5, Logan.
Sin bin: Wood, 35
Saracens: Castaignède (Winnan, 56); Shanklin, Johnston (Little, 62), Sorrell, O'Mahony; Goode, Bracken (capt; Williams, 69); Ross, Cairns, Marsters, Yandell, Hooper, Chesney, Hill, Russell (Peacey, 20).
Tries: Sorrell, Marsters. Cons: Goode 2. Pens: Goode 3.
Sin bin: Peacey, 47
Attendance: 8,517.
Referee: A Rowden (Berkshire).
