Tonga’uiha double sinks poor Wasps
LONDON WASPS (10) vs NORTHAMPTON (37)
WASPS boss Tony Hanks labelled his side’s performance “an embarrassment” after they slumped to a comprehensive defeat against Northampton at Adams Park.
The club’s director of rugby was furious with the way his team defended against an in-form Saints side who notched five tries in a one-sided encounter that was also marred by an injury to England centre Riki Flutey.
“There’s a sense of embarrassment at having let the supporters and our families down,” said Hanks.
“Our supporters have been great for us in the last few weeks, but that performance wasn’t befitting of them. It’s a mixture of disappointment, frustration and embarrassment. It’s a horrible feeling when you come second like that.”
Prop forward Soane Tonga’uiha bagged two of his side’s five tries as the Saints cut the home defence open with ease to move to within one point of Premiership table-toppers London Irish.
Stephen Myler opened the scoring with a penalty after a collapsed scrum and the fly-half put his side in command when he jinked his way over to score the game’s opening try.
Tonga’uiha powered over for a second before Chris Ashton, Tonga’uiha again and Courtney Lawes touched down to secure the bonus point. Ben Jacobs’ late try was scant consolation for the hosts, whose only over score came from the boot of Dave Walder.
Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder was understandably delighted with his team’s display but admitted that Saints had scented blood as soon as they discovered giant lock Simon Shaw had been ruled out for Wasps.
“That was a very satisfying performance,” Mallinder said. “We’ve never won down here before so we knew we needed to play well and we certainly did that today.
“Simon was a massive loss to them as he’s particularly good at stopping the driving maul. He’s got massive experience and is a massive bloke. To see he wasn’t playing was a boost.”