Jimmy Gopperth Proves Wasps Are Strong as Ever
Martyn Thomas recaps the weekend of the European Champions Cup where thrilling conclusions were found at every turn.
Speaking to Jimmy Gopperth ahead of Wasps’ European Champions Cup quarterfinal against Exeter on Saturday, the Kiwi fly-half was in modest mood.
“I’m just another cog in the back line,” he told me. “I don’t need to try too much, I just let the players do the work and try and put them in a bit of space.”
It was a typically understated comment from a No.10 who has quietly become one of the most accomplished playmakers in the European club game during spells with Newcastle, Leinster and now Wasps.
And he stayed true to his word at the Ricoh Arena, remaining calm with time running out to put England centre Elliot Daly clear, who in turn fed Charles Piutau to power over for his second try of the match.
With time expired, and a tight touchline conversion to come, the hosts had hauled themselves back into a contest they had trailed by 13 points with only the final quarter remaining.
And for all the individual brilliance of Piutau, Daly and Frank Halai, Wasps’ place in the last four was dependent on the right boot of their fly-half.
Having missed a wide conversion from the opposite side of the pitch earlier in the half, Gopperth would have been forgiven for experiencing a few nerves as he stepped up.
However if he doubted himself, he kept it extremely well hidden as his arms were raised, biceps clenched, in celebration almost as soon as the ball left his boot.
The cog had done its job, sending the ball spinning through the posts and the Wasps into the last four. Providing further evidence, if any were needed, that Danny Cipiriani will not be able to walk straight back into this Wasps team when he returns next season.
Wasps have won the competition on their previous two visits to the semifinals, but they will not be able to rely on history alone this year following the closest weekend of European quarterfinals of the last decade.
That five of the eight losers across the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup ties were beaten by less than a single try is nothing new. In fact it was the same last year.
But, crucially 12 months ago only two quarterfinals were settled three points or less, this year it was four. Indeed, for the first time since the 2009-10 season, two of the eight ties were settled by just a single point.
And these were not dour kicking affairs, either. Wasps’ narrow win over Exeter yielded 49 points and six tries, while Grenoble beat PRO12 leaders Connacht 33-32 in the Challenge Cup despite being outscored four tries to three by their visitors.
Even Leicester’s 41-13 dismantling of a below-par Stade Francais at Welford Road seems close when you consider three quarterfinals in the previous two years had been settled by 32 points or more.
Moreover, it was not merely a weekend rich in competitive rugby but also one on which the champions of both competitions fell.
Toulon, winners of the last three European Cups, had been given a bitter-sweet prize for navigating a tough Pool 5 behind Wasps and were unable to beat Racing 92 in northern France for the second time in a matter of weeks. Even with Maxime Machenaud’s late shank.
Yet, the standout result of the weekend was arguably staged in England’s west country, where Newport Gwent Dragons arrived as a club in crisis and left having beaten Challenge Cup holders Gloucester on their own patch.
Erratic as the Cherry and Whites can be it was some way for the Welsh region to end a week in which they had been put up for sale.
The Dragons’ appearance in the last four of the second tier competition does, though, highlight the growing hegemony of the English and French clubs.
Connacht were unable to hold onto a commanding lead that would have seen them join them. But with the PRO12’s representation long eliminated from the Champions Cup, it was a weekend that did little to assuage the growing sense that Aviva Premiership and Top 14 clubs are sprinting off into the distance.
That is a problem that European Professional Club Rugby, PRO12 and its unions should address, but is also a debate for another time.
For now, the continent’s rugby fans should be allowed to bask in a thrilling weekend of action safe in the knowledge they have another to look forward to in a fortnight’s time.
Comments on RugbyPass
Christie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
44 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
5 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
44 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
44 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to commentsBut here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.
44 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
44 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
2 Go to comments