The talk from Twickenham

Injuries, intercepts and inclement weather

"Let's face it, it was a very poor game of rugby" - Josh Lewsey's words - but there were plenty of talking points from Sunday's Powergen Cup final.

Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan must have been wondering when he had blasphemed so shockingly, such was the damage wrought to his loose forwards during the encounter at Twickenham.

Wasps flank Jonny O'Connor departed the field after just two minutes on a stretcher after an eight-minute stoppage. It is something we have seen quite a few times over the past season, and each time we have been fortunate enough to heave a big sigh of relief afterwards.

This time the sigh was even bigger as Wasps coach Ian McGeechan revealed immediately after the game just how serious the injury might have been.

"He's got his feeling back now," said McGeechan.

"He did have a loss of feeling for a while, that was what the great concern was.

"They are going to do some extra scans on him. Basically it was a compression of his spine and his nervous column. It's going to take time, but the feeling is back now, so it is a big relief."

Scarlets captain Simon Easterby slightly belied the seriousness of his injury by sitting coolly on the bench for some of the second half, but the on-pitch story was  dramatic.

Referee Alan Lewis had allowed the game to continue while Easterby was out on the floor, but after another phase of play wing Mark Jones sprinted over to Easterby and put him in the recovery position.

As soon as Lewis stopped the play, the Scarlets' physios steamed onto the pitch fast enough that even speedster Jones's response looked a touch ungainly.

"I ran over to him when I saw him turning blue," said Jones.

"I know in situations like that people have been known to swallow his tongue and that is what had happened.

"I didn't touch his tongue though, I just pulled him onto his side and made sure he was in a comfortable position. I wasn't going to mess around, I am not a first-aid expert.

"Hopefully what I did was positive and didn't hinder him, hopefully I was a help. He's a good friend of mine and I couldn't have cared less if Wasps had scored three tries in the time I took out of the game."

The Scarlets fans were unimpressed that play had been allowed to continue by Lewis, and Jones had also been screaming for a whistle, along with several other players.

"I shouted at him three or four times to blow the whistle. He just seemed... I don't know if he didn't hear me or not, but he was playing on," continued Jones.

"If you know Simon, you know he doesn't lie on the floor. He wasn't moving and that was a big concern. I am just pleased he is up and running. I am going to give him some stick now for making such a palaver!"

Certainly the loss of both players affected their respective teams. Wasps were a poorly-concentrated and ill-disciplined lot in the first half, which ended with a penalty count of 8-2 against them.

"There were a few harsh words about our discipline," said Shaun Edwards about the Wasps half-time dressing-room.

"But what we also said is more method and less excitement. We were running around like headless chickens at certain times."

McGeechan agreed: "We were a little excitable in that first forty minutes, we almost wanted to do it with every ball we got, score with every possession rather than play a little more cleverly."

Lawrence Dallaglio, responding to a question about the O'Connor injury, said that the team needed the second injury break - and half-time - to get themselves focussed again.

"Injuries are part and parcel of the game, and obviously we do hope that both players have come through ok. You don't like to see anyone stretchered off.

"You have to deal with it. If anything, Simon's injury gave us time to regroup and think a little bit about what we were doing."

Meanwhile, the Scarlets won the first half 5-2 in turnovers as well, but after Easterby's departure, they lost ball seven times in the second half, stealing it just twice.

"When you lose a player of Simon's calibre, not only the quality of player but the individual, the captain of the team - and we've lost him both times against Wasps - it does have a bearing on the game," said Scarlets coach Gareth Jenkins.

Jenkins also pointed to the weather, according. After a sunny first-half, a biting wind whipped up and the rain ruled proceedings from minute 47 onwards.

"The weather became a major factor in the game," he said.

"It was virtually impossible to play catch-up rugby, and they turned the screw bit by bit after that.

"They made a very good substitution, bringing on King at ten. But I do believe that if we had taken our chances in that first half and built a lead, and the weather had changed as it did, whether Wasps would have been able to play catch-up rugby on us."

Lewsey saw the change in weather as an additional factor to Wasps' change in tactical thinking.

"We could not have played as badly as we did in the first half," he said.

"We allowed them to slow our ball down, the referee allowed them to do that, and we didn't play to the referee and clear them out.

"But it's about winning the game. We knew we needed to keep hold of the ball and play more territory in the second half. Then the weather came in and helped us."

The game also revolved around two interceptions. First there was the one by Mike Hercus up the left, which really ought to have led to a try but was ruined by the American's indecision.

Had the Scarlets scored, it would have been 15 or 17-3, exactly the kind of lead Jenkins referred to when talking about the weather.

"I was shouting 'kick', I was expecting a kick, but obviously he couldn't hear me," said Mark Jones, who was Hercus's closest support player in the move.

"If he had got the kick in, it would have been a foot-race then and would have been anybody's ball.

"When I saw he had gone I looked, and I could see his head turning, and I knew the legs were asking for some help.

"Maybe he could have kept going, but it's very difficult. You have about three decisions to make, an din the end it was just a hand in there that stopped it from coming off.

"It was good scrambling from Wasps as well."

The second interception was the one by Jeremy Staunton which led to the Wasps try just before half-time, and took the teams in level at 10-10, a scoreline wholly unreflective to Llanelli's first-half superiority, but a massive boost to Wasps.

"We made some mistakes in the first-half, and we let some chances go begging," said Dallaglio.

"You don't like to be down for too long. In the end, the try came from our defence, with Tom [Voyce] doing what he does."

Staunton, who was stopped short of the line before offloading to Voyce, said the relief was a big boost to him.

"In the end, I was just glad to see us score," he said.

"I got stopped just short of the line and saw Tom out left. I thought 'woaah, should I throw this?' But I did and he got over, so I was a bit relieved."

Wasps are the Powergen Cup champions though, and for Ian McGeechan it is a triumph at the first time of asking as Wasps coach.

"It's a great feeling, and actually it is the first club trophy I have ever won," he said.

"It is a bit special."