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| Fitzgerald's return some consolation |
A Gorgeous evening for rugby attracted a healthy crowd to Donnybrook. In such conditions Wasps were fitting opponents and they took little time to settle. Ben Jacobs evading Eoin O'Malley's tackle after just three minutes before unleashing Tom Varndell who, so early in the game had too much gas to be caught by David Kearney.
The writing was on the wall, and a bristling English outfit attacked the same channel straight away. This time Jacobs was hit by the tackle Luke Fitzgerald has been dreaming of making for the last nine months
Such was the heat prior to kickoff: Leinster headed to their Bective changing room sweating buckets. But all the heat from there on, was brought by the visitors, as the shadow of the main stand crept across the grass.
In that shade Eamonn Sheridan suffered a concussion midway through the first half. After laying on the 22 for a period he set off to take up his defensive position but staggered and veered back toward the physio who called on Ferguis McFadden.
That burst of pace and intensity temporarily improved the host's back line and Ian Madigan took both opportunities to kick his team in the lead.
But on the stroke of half time, Dave Walder took back that advantage with a simple 20 metre penalty. The other side of the break the visitors capitalised when Leinster became easily overstretched, Jacobs, the architect of Varndell's touchdown, this time had a free run.
Along with Fitzgerald, Sean O'Brien was returning from a long lay off was. As captain for the night he will at least take solace of 80 minutes action, but not with the result which was cut and dried by 55 minutes. After 15 minutes of the second period the hosts had found just found a rhythm, probing and driving to the roars of approval from Cian Healy, sitting in the main stand.
But when the move broke down with a penalty for crossing, Haughton burned off Fitzgerald to get underneath the posts the posts. And as both sides emptied the bench, the visitors continued unabated, tearing apart the crumbling blue walls.
The highlight for the home support was a massive hit from Dominic Ryan on Elliot Daly, but Daly had the last laugh as he put through Mark Van Gisbergen for a try. Haughton managed another before Christian Wade completed the rout with another five points.
Simon Shaw was issued a late, almost obligatory, yellow card. But it mattered little, the European champions of 2009 had conceded six tries in their opening warm up match.
Joe Schmidt and his team will seek a massive improvement when they travel to face Leicester Tigers next week.
SCORES:
Leinster:
Pen: Madigan (2)
Wasps:
Tries: Varndell, Jacobs, Haugton (2), VanGisbergen, Wade
Pen: Walder (1)
Conv: Walder (2) Simpson (2)
LEINSTER: 15: Luke Fitzgerald 14: David Kearney,13: Eoin O'Malley 12: Eamonn Sheridan 11: Isa Nacewa 10: Ian Madigan 9: Paul O'Donohoe 1: Heinke van der Merwe 2: Richardt Strauss 3: Mike Ross 4: Trevor Hogan 5: Devin Toner 6: Eoin Sheriff 7: Paul Ryan 8: Sean O'Brien CAPT
REPLACEMENTS:
16: Jason Harris-Wright 17: Jack McGrath 18: Stan Wright 19: Mariano Galarza 20: Dominic Ryan 21: Isaac Boss 22: Ian McKinley 23: Fergus McFadden 24: Ben Marshall 25: Michael Keating 26: Niall Morris
LONDON WASPS: 15: Jack Wallace 14: Richard Haughton 13: Ben Jacobs 12: Dom Waldouck 11: Tom Varndell 10: Dave Walder 9: Nic Berry 1: Zak Taulafo 2: Tom Lindsay 3: Phil Vickery 4: Marty Veale 5: Richard Birkett 6: Will Matthews 7: Serge Betsen 8: John Hart
REPLACEMENTS:
16: Rob Webber 17: Tim Payne 18: Ben Broster 19: James Cannon 20: Tom Rees 21: Joe Simpson 22: Riki Flutey23: Christian Wade 24: Simon Shaw 25: Sam Jones 26: Elliot Daly 27: Mark Van Gisbergen.
REFEREE: John Lacey (IRFU)
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