Reasons why we will miss Wasps

RUGBY MATTERS

SO farewell Wasps, at least the club we knew. Who can forget those misty afternoons at Sudbury sheltering in their toy town ‘grandstand'; John Gasson dispensing brandy nips; Peter Yarranton on the PA; Rob Andrew slotting goals for fun; the post-match clamour at the bar; grudge matches with Leicester; snarling encounters with Quins; Blackie singing The Blaydon Races and gamely – if unwisely– hitting a Clermont miscreant with his programme as he patrolled the touchline; the eye popping performance of a young Danny Cipriani that very same day; Josh Lewsey hitting the turbos on an outside arc; Buster White and Dean Ryan putting some stick about; Paul Sackey easing and slithering his way in for yet another try; Joe Simpson carving it up; Christian Wade pulling rabbits out of the hat; Shawsie slotting a dropped goal; Joe Worsley atomising another opponent; BTL (Big Trevor Leota) demolishing a KFC box in similar style; the reassuring bark of Shaun Edwards at training; Gats and Geech plotting from their broom cupboard in Acton; those European Cup finals at Twickenham when they twice defied the odds; that epic win over Munster at Lansdowne Road; Jack Willis at the breakdown; Joe Launchbury rolling his sleeves up; Ashley Johnson's big hair; Jacob Umaga's changing hair. And finally the Wasps man who went to the wrong pub in January 1871 and that's why, technically, they were not founder members of the RFU even though there was never a more yeoman club. Oh yes, we are going to miss a great club very badly indeed.