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Wasps ready for stern examination after French lesson
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| James Haskell |
JAMES Haskell scored two tries, saved one and was also named Man of the Match, but he still returned from France with an itch to scratch after Wasps were beaten 37-27 in their Heineken Cup group match last Saturday.
He said: "I was ready to play them again on Monday. Wasps don't like losing and we want to rectify that."
Tomorrow's game can't come around quickly enough for the young England back row, but the pressure Wasps heaped on themselves by returning from France with nothing is immense.
They have slipped from first in the group to third and still have to navigate a trip to new leaders Munster.
That game is almost certain to be a winner-takes-all decider - but only if Wasps bounce back by beating Clermont tomorrow.
Haskell said: "We let ourselves down at their place so this is most definitely a must-win game for us.
"Our defence wasn't good enough. You can't go away from home and score three tries and then come home with nothing.
"We weren't surprised by their physicality. These games are like small internationals so we knew what to expect. But we were a bit naive and indisciplined.
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| James Haskell |
"We gave away too many penalties and their kicker was able to take advantage of that.
"We didn't say too much in the dressing afterwards but we've assessed it clinically this week and tried to sort a few things out.
"They are not invincible."
Wasps know they can beat the Frenchmen because they so nearly did in the Parc des Sports.
Having scored three tries themselves, they were trailing by five points going into the final minute of the match.
They could have opted to kick for touch and take a losing bonus point which would have kept them above their hosts in the table.
But, about to take their own throw at a line-out five metres from the French line, Wasps were tempted by the prospect of snatching a second bonus point with a fourth try, and then nailing the conversion to steal victory.
Instead, they were turned over, driven back, turned over again and an injury-time try from Aurelien Rougerie meant they ended up with nothing.
It might have been a different story had television match official David McHugh not awarded a try to Mario Ledesma on the stroke of half-time, when replays seemed to show that Haskell's boot stopped him grounding the ball before Mark van Gisbergen stole possession back.
Haskell said: "The decision was made and you can't dwell on it.
"But there is no point having the technology if you aren't going to use it correctly. We all thought it was not a try and in hindsight that was right.
"But it doesn't matter what I think. We lost the game through other mistakes, not because that try was given.
"It is added motivation, but we are always highly motivated and the main thing is to sort out our own game because we know we've got a massive challenge in front of us now."
7:30am Friday 14th December 2007
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