ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: London Irish 26 Wasps 14: PUZZLED EXPRESSIONS are evident at all levels of British and Irish rugby. Where once there were certainties there are now all kinds of questions, courtesy of the experimental law variations which have clearly rattled Wasps.
The champions of England resembled a parish congregation who had wandered in expecting to sing Jerusalem, only to end up mouthing the words to an unfamiliar, happy-clappy hymn.
London Irish, on this evidence, will be much more willing converts to the ELV cause, having delivered "as encouraging a performance as you could wish for", according to their new head coach, Toby Booth.
Mobile teams who can hold their own at set-pieces, without necessarily dominating, and think smarter than the average bear are suddenly much more dangerous. Wasps were made to look pedestrian.
Even the Exiles, though, were not entirely comfortable with some of referee Andrew Small's rulings, and Booth will raise a number of issues with the Rugby Football Union's referee manager, Ed Morrison, at a debriefing today.
There were endless on-field corrections and clarifications and it is already clear lineout etiquette has disappeared.
Expect to see an awful lot of unseemly wrestling for the ball over the touchline as quick throws become as valuable a way of relieving pressure as turnovers. Kicking, too, will proliferate.
London Irish put boot to ball 33 times, not including restarts, place-kicks and penalties, in 80 minutes. The resulting spectacle was not so much reminiscent of rugby league as Australian Rules.
The next few months threaten to be a trial, too, for referees.
The law changes are intended to simplify the sport but they appeared to be giving the New Zealand-born Small a severe case of brain-ache.
All too often he would be watching for some trifling ELV and miss a glaring example of ball-killing or a knock-on.
Joe Worsley should have been sinbinned at the start of the second quarter when he cynically snuffed out a promising London Irish attack, and Wasps were denied a potential penalty try in the closing seconds when the otherwise outstanding Peter Hewat pulled Worsley back in a race for a bouncing ball.
A losing bonus point, even so, would have been an injustice.
This result was no accident.
Booth deliberately challenged Nick Kennedy and Steffon Armitage to outperform the incumbent England squad men, Simon Shaw and Tom Rees. Both did so. And the national coaching staff will have noted the performance of Alex Corbisiero, an England under-20 prop with Italian antecedents born in New York City.
LONDON IRISH: Hewat; Ojo, D Armitage, Mapusua, Tagicakibau; Catt, Hodgson; Corbisiero, Coetzee, Rautembach, Johnson, Kennedy, Thorpe, S Armitage, Hala'ufia. Replacements: Hickey for Catt (65), Richards for Hodgson (72), D Murphy for Corbisiero (48), Buckland for Coetzee (60), Paice for Rautembach (60), Fisher for Hala'ufia (78). Not used: Thompstone. Sinbin: Hala'ufia (16).
WASPS: Van Gisbergen; Sackey, D Waldouck, D Waldouck, Lewsey; Voyce, Flutey; Reddan, Payne, Ibanez, Barnard, Shaw, Birkett, Worsley, Rees, Haskell. Replacements: Mitchell for van Gisbergen (68), Staunton for Lewsey (41), Webber for Ibanez (68), Vickery for Barnard (51), Palmer for Birkett (51), Hart for Haskell (68). Not used: Simpson.
Referee: Andrew Small(RFU).
• Guardian Service
