Harlequins 20 Wasps 21: Danny Cipriani fluffs lines in front of 76,000 at Twickenham

By Chris Foy for the Daily Mail Updated: 19:08 EST, 27 December 2009

Wasps managed to spoil Harlequins' record-breaking festive extravaganza at Twickenham on Sunday, despite Danny Cipriani's rusty return to goal-kicking action making a close game of it.

A crowd in excess of 76,000 created a vibrant atmosphere at HQ as Big Game II passed off as a triumph of ambition and marketing in these trying economic times.

But even a last-minute try by David Strettle was not enough to ensure the massed ranks of Quins fans went home with a win to savour.

They snatched a losing bonus point, but couldn't prevent the visitors from deservedly claiming the spoils to go into the New Year fifth in the Guinness Premiership table.

For Cipriani, this was a case of straight in at the deep end on his return from injury. Having recovered from a fractured fibula, he had spent the best part of a month playing a frustrated understudy to Dave Walder, but having regained the No 10 shirt for this glamour occasion, he blew hot and cold.

There were flashes of his instinctive creativity - one nifty half-break and some sublime long passing - but he had an off day with the boot, missing five of his seven shots at goal.

The fact that Wasps made light of these lapses said a lot for their dominance and composure.

But, after John Hart's late try had served as a means of crushing a spirited rearguard action from the home side, the victors' director of rugby Tony Hanks responded to reports from across the Channel linking Cipriani, who is out of contract at the end of the season, with a move to Stade Francais.

'Any good player who is out of contract at the end of the season is going to get linked to all sorts of clubs,' he said.

'It would be silly if they weren't because we're talking about quality players. Any club would be looking at quality players.'

The player himself simply added: 'I am happy here and we have a great squad to move forward, which is the main thing.'

Asked about the conundrum of whether to pick Cipriani or the in-form Walder in the weeks ahead, Hanks added: 'We're very fortunate. Not many sides have the quality of fly-halves we've got. They both offer different things and today this was the right balance for us. Danny put in some really good tackles. We put a lot of emphasis on our fly-half's defence and I thought Danny really stood up in that regard.'

Cipriani had mixed feelings about his performance but was evidently relieved to be back on the field again.

'I enjoyed it,' he said. 'We got the win, which was the main focus, and we put together some nice bits of play. Obviously I was disappointed with my goal-kicking but I was pretty pleased with the rest of my play.

'In the second half there was one kick on the left on the 10-metre line which I should have got so I was disappointed with that. I probably tried too hard with the one on halfway but it's just about getting back in the groove and getting used to playing again. I've just come back today so I have to put a string of games together for Wasps now and keep playing well - that is my main focus. If England come calling that would be amazing because I would love to be involved.'

Wasps were off to a flying start when they scored their first try in the third minute. Lock George Skivington broke clear from a ruck deep in his own half and kicked ahead. Strettle raced back to cover but the ball rolled out of his grasp and over the line for Joe Simpson to claim an opportunist try.

Unfortunately for Simpson, he later withdrew from the action in some pain and early reports indicated he had suffered a dislocated shoulder.

Cipriani's two penalties before the break were matched by Nick Evans so Wasps went in at half-time 11-6 up.

Walder went on in the 57th minute and landed a kick of his own four minutes later. But, with Chris Robshaw leading the charge, Quins rallied strongly, and Danny Care capped a performance full of adventurous running by diving over in the 69th minute from a move begun by his own quick tap penalty.

Evans converted to reduce the gap to one point, but Wasps moved quickly to snuff out the resistance. Simon Shaw set in motion a sweeping counter-attack, Walder and Mark van Gisbergen combined well in midfield and, after Shaw had powered on again, Bob Baker was on hand to provide the scoring pass for Hart to stretch across the line.

The extra points were added by Walder and, although Strettle struck at the posts in the last minute, there was no time for Quins to snatch victory.

Their head coach John Kingston said: 'We played for 60 minutes and that's not good enough. We gave away soft tries and we have to look at that.'