Gaffney's men take charity to extreme

ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP/Saracens 29 Wasps 40:SARACENS' DIRECTOR of rugby Alan Gaffney admitted his players' faces were as pink as their shirts after this defeat that kept Ian McGeechan's men on track for the play-offs.

Gaffney's men, who wore pink jerseys in support of Breast Cancer Care, were equally as charitable in defence as Raphael Ibanez, Tom Voyce and Paul Sackey added to Dominic Waldouck's brace to blitz the home side in a frantic opening half.

"The first 40 minutes were close to the most embarrassing 40 minutes I've been involved in," said Gaffney, who is due to return to Leinster as a consultant.

He drew little comfort from seeing Francisco Leonelli record a second hat-trick in as many home Premiership games.

"We had a heart-to-heart at half-time, the players realised they had to go out and do something in the second half and they fought a lot harder," Gaffney added.

And he warned his side they cannot afford a repeat of the slack defending that allowed Wasps to run riot when they face Munster in next weekend's Heineken Cup semi-final.

"If we go through that exercise in conceding tries again next week, the team that punish sides the most is the side we're playing next week," he said. "They punish sides more than anybody I've seen. We've got to make them play and earn the points they score, not us concede them."

For Wasps, the victory rounded off their eighth straight win and third in a week that has yielded 14 points to take them third in the table. They have three games remaining - against Gloucester, Newcastle and Leeds Carnegie - to seal their place in the semi-finals.

Director of rugby Ian McGeechan said: "It was a great position to get into by half-time and it was always going to tell a bit in the second half.

"All the time we've looked at fourth place to see how close we were and what we had to do to make sure we were around fourth coming into this last month of the season. With three games to go I think it'll go down to last weekend.

"It's in our hands and the players know that, but they've got another three games in six days to come and that's a big ask. But we've tried to freshen it up and we'll do that again in the last week."

SARACENS: Haughton; Leonelli, Sorrell, Powell, Ratuvou; Jackson, de Kock; Lloyd, Ongaro, Johnson, Vyvyan, Ryder, Gustard, Barrell, Skirving. Replacements: Visagie for Johnson (22 mins); Cairns for Ongaro (47 mins); Fullarton for Vyvyan (54 mins); Penney for Sorrell (64 mins); Seymour for Barrell (72 mins); Ross for Jackson, Rauluni for de Kock (both 76 mins).

WASPS: Van Gisbergen; Sackey, Waldouck, Lewsey, Voyce; Cipriani, Reddan; Payne, Ibanez, Barnard, Shaw, Palmer, Worsley, Rees, Dallaglio. Replacements: French for Barnard (4 mins); Ward for Ibanez (24 mins); Haskell for Dallaglio (54 mins); McMillan for Reddan (64 mins); Skivington for Palmer (72 mins); Hoadley for French (75 mins).

Referee: Dave Pearson (Newcastle).