IT WASN'T meant to be like this. When Ian McGeechan and Shaun Edwards were named as coaches for next year's Lions tour to South Africa their club side Wasps had recently won the Guinness Premiership title. The most successful side of the modern era b
oast five league championships and two Heineken Cup wins to their name. They have turned starting slowly into an art form, scraping into a play-off place every year by the skin of their teeth before, as often as not, going on to win the championship.
It will be an escape act worthy of Houdini himself if Wasps get into the top four this time because the win over the Falcons on Friday night gave Wasps only their second league win of the season so far.
The English champions now have two crucial European matches against Edinburgh with the first of the back-to-back games taking place at Murrayfield this Friday evening. Edinburgh are bolstered by the return to action of the pocket dynamo Ross Rennie and the city side boasts a handy record against Wasps in the capital. In 2005 Edinburgh beat the Londoners in a Heineken Cup pool match, Simon Webster getting the vital injury time try, and earlier this year the Scots won a pre-season match 22-15. Does this friendly encounter have any relevance for next Friday's do-or-die fixture which will likely end the losers' hopes of progressing any further in this competition?
"I'd like to think not," says Wasps' head coach Shaun Edwards. "I don't think that a pre-season match has any real bearing on what will happen next Friday. We know Edinburgh are a very competitive side, they counter-attack very well and they have a big formidable pack of forwards, a little like Scotland do. They have great team work. We are very aware that another loss in this competition will end our Heineken Cup dreams. I have a huge respect for Edinburgh's win in Castres. It is a very, very difficult place to travel and come away with a win."
Edinburgh's victory, their first in France in the Heineken Cup, kept alive their slim hopes of progressing to the knockout stages after Leinster blew them away at Murrayfield in the opening fixture. But if Edwards expects his side to get as easy as ride as the Irishmen he is hiding it well. "I thought Edinburgh were very unlucky against Leinster," insists the coach, "I've watched the game and much of what Edinburgh did that night was excellent." This praise may be more than the traditional talking up of the opposition that every coach indulges in because Wasps travelled to Dublin in the last round and found themselves on the wrong end of a 41-11 shellacking from precisely the same side.
But right now Edwards is far more concerned with persuading his misfiring stars to reproduce their best next Friday after a start to the season that has been disappointing to say the least. The notoriously prickly character bristles when it is put to him that the dual duties that the twin Wasps coaches have with their club and the Lions is the underlying cause for the club's current woes.
"What duties are those?" Edwards answers the question with one of his own. "The only Lions duty I have undertaken so far is one press conference. My Lions duties don't start until May 28. Ian (McGeechan] is the selector and he has far more experience of that than I do. My job is to stop South Africa scoring tries. I think I have only missed two training sessions this entire season and while Ian has missed three or four, one of us has always been in attendance at every club session."
So if the coaches are not the problem then what is? "We have lost a lot of games by a narrow margin," replies the defence expert. "One, two, three or four points and if we'd have won those close matches we'd be right up at the top of the league. Lots of Premiership matches seem to be close this season, less than seven points separating the teams, and if we can get that right we'll be fine."
The man in charge of guiding Wasps out of the mire is, of course, one Danny Cipriani, otherwise known as the "Marquis of Mayfair", and the great white hope of England rugby must be thoroughly cheesed off with life right now. Having failed dismally at international level for England in the recent autumn outings his confidence was dealt a blow as he was axed in favour of Toby Flood for yesterday's All Blacks match. The young fly-half's resilience will be tested to the full because Wasps' best hope of silverware this season may lie in Europe and his club can ill-afford another humiliation on the scale as Dublin. Just how Cipriani reacts to his international hangover over the next two weeks of Heineken Cup competition may well determine his club's season.
"He is resolute and he's proved that by coming back so soon from his injury, he's way ahead of schedule," says his club coach. "Remember Danny played in a Heineken Cup final at full-back at the age of 19 and he was faultless. He is now playing fly-half in the championship for us and he is not finding it easy but he'll recover. He has immense determination and drive.
"Danny is still only 20 years old (he is 21 on Tuesday] and he is still developing as a player. He'll be a better player when he is 26-27 than he is when he's 20-21 – that's a natural progression. Of course he likes to keep the ball in hand and he is a big threat with his acceleration but he also has a good kicking game."
Edwards has a fair point. Cipriani may not have been able to single-handedly resurrect English rugby in recent weeks but, starting at Murrayfield on Friday, the young playmaker is his club's best hope of pulling something from the ashes of a forgettable season.
• Edinburgh v Wasps, Heineken Cup, Murrayfield, Friday, 7.30pm. Up to four children can go free with one paying adult.
ROBINSON'S WINNING FORMEDINBURGH warmed up for their Heineken Cup clash with Wasps with a 32-16 Magners League win over a weakened Ospreys side but the victory left coach Andy Robinson with mixed emotions.
He said: "In the first half we really looked comfortable, but it looked in the second half as though the guys believed they had the game already won and it was frustrating not to earn the bonus point.
"We sat back and let them play, but on the plus side we dominated the scrums and our defensive work was good. That is three games on the trot we have won, however the bonus point issue could count against us at the end of the season."
Robinson revealed that Scotland centre Ben Cairns suffered a dead leg and is a doubt for the Heineken clash with Wasps at Murrayfield on Friday.
Glasgow were also on winning form on Friday evening and their 28-0 home triumph over Cardiff Blues at Firhill was a case of the Scots side "out-bullying the bullies", according to flanker Callum Forrester.
The success propelled the Warriors to second spot in the Magners League title race, while Edinburgh are up to fourth. Breakaway forward Forrester marked his first home start in the competition with a powerful display which mirrored Glasgow's attitude.
He said: "Coach Sean Lineen had told me to go out and try to get some big hits in. I got a couple of good tackles in early on and that made me feel great.
"We knew that Cardiff would come up here with the intention of bullying us off our game, but we had made up our mind to stand up to them in the physicality stakes. And we managed to put them on the back foot for most of the contest.
"It was great playing with such experienced players because they talked me through the game and kept me right. But even with that short experience I feel that I have learned a huge amount."
A thrilled Lineen added: "To get the bonus point tonight was a performance right up there with our best. We dominated the collisions and won the game at the contact and breakdown areas. The team were up for it and their attitude was spot on both mentally and physically."
The full article contains 1447 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
