McGeechan rues 'lost' bonus point
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:21
London Wasps Director of Rugby Ian McGeechan admitted the defending champions were "sub-standard" in their 14-26 loss to London Irish in the opening match of the Guinness Premiership season, but added that his team deserved a bonus point.
Wasps, coming to grips with life without retired World Cup-winner Lawrence Dallaglio, were well beaten in the first 60 minutes - as the Exiles raced into a 20-0 lead.
While late tries from Tom Rees and Eoin Reddan spared their blushes on the scoreboard, McGeechan felt there was a point to be made for a penalty try in the dying moments - which would have earned the defending champions a bonus point.
"We came back well, scoring two good tries," McGeechan said.
"Irish were hanging on at the end but when you have built up that sort of lead it doesn't really matter.
"A bonus point would have been fair reward for our endeavour in the second half."
Dallaglio retired last season and Wasps clearly missed their talisman, who would not have been impressed with what he witnessed from the sidelines.
"We have to make the most of the times when we have the whole squad together, but we didn't do that today [Saturday]," said McGeechan.
"It was a sub-standard performance and we're all very disappointed. We conceded a couple of easy scores."
Forwards Chris Hala'ufia and Richard Thorpe plundered soft tries at the line-out to help Irish register a convincing victory.
But Director of Rugby Toby Booth was as satisfied by the refusal to concede a bonus point as the result itself.
"If we had been more clinical we could have been further in front at times," he said. "Wasps came back at us and you expect that from them so to show the mentality to shut them out was fantastic.
"We're trying to get tougher in terms of our mindset so to deny them the bonus point was very pleasing.
"That was as an encouraging display as we could have
asked for at this stage of the season. Sometimes denying the opposition a bonus point is as important as securing yours, so we're very pleased."
With thanks to guinnesspremiership.com
