Yellow fever makes Wasps look sickly

WHAT a turnaround! A month ago everything in Wasps’ garden was rosy with European qualification already assured and the completion of a five-match winning run culminating in a thrilling 52-44 victory at Bath.

- ROGER PANTING

In the opposite camp were Saints with one win in 14 competitive matches.

The tide turned rapidly with Northampton winning three on the bounce as Wasps followed up their crushing 49-17 defeat to Harlequins with a second home loss.

It was no more than Wasps deserved as their ill-discipline and poor decision-making saw them concede a 22-point halftime advantage from which they couldn’t recover to allow Saints to win a very poor game without them being anywhere near impressive.

Wasps director of rugby Lee Blackett said: “We were miles better than last week. We had greater speed and intent but our execution wasn’t good enough.

“We had enough opportunities to score but didn’t take them and our ill-discipline proved costly.”

That ill-discipline brought yellow cards in quick succession for Kieran Brookes and James Gaskell.

Blackett added: “It’s frustrating as the 14 points we conceded when down to 13 men had a big effect and they scored their points a bit easier than we did.”