Were you watching, Liverpool? Rafa Benitez and co can take heart from Sunday’s Heineken Cup decider, which was yet another sporting demonstration of how intensity and a game-plan can be used to bridge a supposedly insurmountable gap in class. Although the final score (25-9) suggests that Wasps gave Leicester a good thrashing, the reality was far less clear cut. Make no mistake, while it was fairly predictable that Wasps would approach Sunday’s game in the same way as they had in one or two of the earlier rounds, this was an ambush.
As they did against Leinster in the quarter final, Wasps won by scratching together a lead and then using the psychological advantage of being ahead to force their way to victory. For an underdog, it is the perfect game plan. The key is to somehow or other manufacture a slight advantage on the scoreboard and then capitalise on any sense of doubt created in the opposition's mentality.
And things couldn't have gone better for Wasps. Once they went ahead, the Tigers, the best league team in England, were made to look totally ineffective by the X-rated play at breakdown and the awesome hitting in the tackle of the Londoners. But even this would not have been enough to win the game had it not been for Wasps' cleverly built lead, itself the product of video analysis rather than any genuine gap in physicality or skill.
In fact, it is ironic that a match between two ultra professional teams turned on the deployment not once but twice of a smoke and mirrors trick which depended on a craft and intelligence seen more often during the amateur era than the ‘bottom line rugby’ Guinness Premiership years.
Aside from the tries, Wasps’ use of their bench also went against the grain. Undoubtedly, they started with one of their best players on the bench in the shape of young number eight James Haskell. How long will it be before an international rugby team takes this idea to the next level by keeping in reserve two or three of their best performers and starting bench players in order to initiate a change in gear? Would Brian O’Driscoll or Gordon D’Arcy be more effective if they were only unleashed as a match endgame neared?
From an Irish perspective, the final was a match during which individual players’ stock fell rather than rose for the most part. Shane Jennings, Leo Cullen, Geordan Murphy and Frank Murphy all played on the losing side without managing to make much of an impression. That said, one poor match should not influence opinion too much though, and it would be premature to write off Jennings or Cullen as Rugby World Cup prospects at this stage. After all, nobody has suggested that any of the Leinster players in the Irish squad ought to be moved back down the international pecking order despite some horrible form at provincial level of late.
Jennings in particular might yet manage to claim a starting place, although numbers six, seven and eight and the second row are set to be among the most hotly contested selection areas. In fact, in the five positions, only Paul O’Connell can be sure of his place, although David Wallace might also be considered close to ‘untouchable’. These positions might become particularly interesting if Eddie O’Sullivan attempts to move one of his vaunted back rowers up into the middle of the scrum in order to free up a spot either for Alan Quinlan or for a genuine breakdown player such as Jennings.
Selection behind the scrum is slightly more settled, but one player 
who did manage to enhance his reputation and who may yet mount a challenge for a start was Wasps scrumhalf Eoin Reddan. Few people would have suggested during his Connacht days that he would win a Heineken Cup, but yesterday’s performance proved that Reddan can perform at the very highest level, and indicated that he wouldn’t be found wanting even in the pressure cooker environment of France in September. On the other hand, Peter Stringer has seen off more challengers than any other player in the current Irish setup, and is unlikely to yield to anyone with the World Cup almost upon us.
Looking ahead to next year, one can only hope that Wasps’ success doesn’t spawn an army of imitators. Wasps won by sticking to their own tradition and making the most of their own squad’s strengths, but I have no doubt that had Ian McGeechan been in charge of the classier side going into the final, he would have tailored his game plan accordingly. Under McGeechan and Shaun Edwards, Wasps have evolved into an ideal cup side, thriving on the raised intensity of winner takes all and becoming better at holding the other team’s stare and forcing a blink than any other club team in this hemisphere.
Ireland, with a quarter final against New Zealand beginning to loom large, might also do well to remember the lessons of their remarkable eclipse of the Tigers.
