Wasps 34; Gloucester 3: Wasps have never previously reached the rarefied heights of a Heineken Cup semi-final but there were distinct echoes of the past yesterday.
If Gloucester were hoping to avoid a repeat of the 39-3 Twickenham crushing that wrecked their domestic campaign last year, they underestimated their hard-headed opponents' ability to show the same ruthlessness on the European front.
The upshot was another brutal dismembering of the Gloucester pack by a side who - Bath's revival notwithstanding - have assumed Leicester's mantle as England's outstanding club.
A seriously heavy-duty contest looms against Munster in a fortnight's time; though the Wasps support of around 2,000 will be drowned out in Dublin by 40,000 Irish voices, an English presence at the Twickenham final in May remains a real possibility.
As Warren Gatland, the Wasps director of rugby and former Ireland coach, was swift to observe, English players have not been without success across the Irish Sea in the recent past.
"There's not the same fear of playing Munster there as there is at Thomond Park," he stressed, clearly suspecting even the hard men of Cork and Limerick may struggle to outmuscle his steely forwards.
Only in the worrying moments when Lawrence Dallaglio and his tireless back-row lieutenant Paul Volley were lying prostrate on the turf after a horrible clash of heads did Wasps look remotely vulnerable. At half-time Dallaglio was still sufficiently groggy to have to be led towards the tunnel, the Wasps camp apparently worried he might wander into the wrong dressing-room, but, with the scoreboard already reading 19-3, one or two Gloucester faces looked equally glazed.
The clearest sign of the home side's dominance was when Dallaglio was sent to the sin-bin late in the third quarter for piling into a ruck in defence of a team-mate he felt had just been hit by an illegal knee. Even without their captain there was no noticeable slackening, the freight-train rumbles of Simon Shaw and Trevor Leota forcing even the bravest Gloucester players to consider self-preservation.
For those who wondered if the occasion could be any more committed than a Premiership game, the answer was very much in the affirmative. Against teams like the Celtic Warriors or the Pertemps Bees, Wasps have sometimes taken their eye off the ball this season; here they did the simple things consistently better than Gloucester and the tougher stuff with even more relish.
Rob Howley's smart blindside foray for the opening try also came at the right time, as did a penalty try for interfering with a rolling maul. With Chris Fortey sent to the sin-bin just before the break, a dazed Dallaglio displayed sufficient presence of mind to capitalise on another devastating maul from a lineout and Leota's trademark rumbling score two minutes into the second half left Gloucester to fight their battles elsewhere.
After Dallaglio was substituted to avoid any chance of him picking up a second yellow card, there were several more scuffles, notably when Volley tackled Jake Boer in the left corner and handbags were exchanged. A 60-metre interception try for Ayoola Erinle merely added injury to insult.
It was all scant reward for the dedicated Cherry and White supporters, many of whom had secured prized places at the game by driving to High Wycombe in advance, posing as home fans and buying tickets to Wasps' league game against Rotherham as part of the package. That sort of loyalty cannot be bought but the truth is their team are nowhere near as resilient on the biggest occasions as Dallaglio's men.
It is some achievement in a season as badly disrupted as this one to peak as effectively as Wasps have done so far. Having already humbled Perpignan in the south of France this season, they have no reason either to fear the French sides in the other semi-final.
"I thought they were 20 points better than us in terms of where they are at the moment," admitted Gloucester's Nigel Melville. In no respect was he exaggerating.
WASPS: Van Gisbergen; Lewsey, Waters, Abbott, Voyce; King, Howley; Dowd, Leota, Green, Shaw, Birkett, Worsley, Volley, Dallaglio. Replacements: Lock for Dallaglio (69 mins), Payne for Green, Purdy for Birkett (73 mins), Erinle for Waters, Denney for Abbott (77 mins), Biljon for Howley, Gotting for Leota (79 mins). Sin-binned: Dallaglio 58.
GLOUCESTER: Van der Bergh; Garvey, Fanolua, Paul, Simpson-Daniel; McRae, Gomarsall; Woodman, Fortey, Vickery, Eustace, Brown, Boer, Hazell, Paramore. Replacements: Buxton for Hazell, Du Preez for Fortey (49 mins), Todd for Fanolua, Cornwell for Eustace (61 mins). Sin-binned: Fortey 40.
Referee: J Jutge (France).
Guardian Service
