SAINTS EARLY PROMISE DISSIPATES IN SIX-TRY STING

This proved to be an apt description of the Wasps nest as once more the Northampton travelling support descended on Adams Park - to give the Causeway its proper title - and once more left disappointed. But for the first 20 minutes this match was finely poised as both sides squared up looking to reverse their recent losing streaks.

Mark Van Gisbergen and Shane Drahm exchanged penalties in the opening exchanges. Van Gisbergen's opener followed an attack in which Simon Shaw and Josh Lewsey drove into Saints' 22 in what turned out to be an ominous omen. But Van Gisbergen indirectly led to Drahm's equaliser, sending a loose kick down the throat of Bruce Reihana. The Kiwi ran the ball back with interest, and Paul Diggin's neat sidestep inside three Wasps players incited them to infringe.

Despite this, Wasps' creative potency was already clicking into gear. Working their way into the danger zone, it seemed inexplicable when Dawson gave the ball to Sackey on the inside when the utilisation of the blindside overlap looked the better option. This allowed the defence to organise and Darren Fox held up Craig Dowd's drive. Even when Wasps eventually spun the ball, crunching tackles by Ben Cohen on Shaw and Matt Lord on Lewsey - the latter forcing a turnover - allowed the ball to be cleared.

And then calamity. A Wasps kick that had looked to have dribbled aimlessly over the goal-line suddenly turned into prime attacking possession. Bruce Reihana mistook the football goal line as marking the end of the dead-ball zone and picked the ball up, thinking that a Saints scrum would be awarded well upfield.

Unfortunately the referee had a different idea. He signalled what looked to be a knock-on and gave Wasps a five-metre scrum. In the retreat, Saints pulled the scrum down, Lawrence Dallaglio took a quick tap, and Matt Dawson wriggled over under the posts. Van Gisbergen converted and all of a sudden the back was broken.

But to this score I will return

Four minutes later Wasps were further in front. Diggin committed himself to the rush-defence on the blindside as the home forwards drove from a lineout. Unluckily this created the space for Van Gisbergen to run through and put Tom Voyce in for the try.

Saints were in danger of going to pieces, especially when Johnny Howard knocked on in his own 22. And it took a good tackle on Paul Sackey by Cohen and a flat pass from Alex King to Joe Worsley being deemed forward for Wasps not to score another.

Northampton may have been on the ropes and staggering, and just as it looked that the first shoots of an already unlikely fightback were appearing, they opened themselves up for the knockout punch. A Drahm pass intended for, well it doesn't matter now, was intercepted by Jonny O'Connor - whose form today didn't bode well for England's chances in Dublin next week. With nobody home, it was easy for O'Connor to sprint clear and put Voyce over for his second.

Wasps' defence equally on top, wrapping up everything Saints threw at them. Lewsey's shoddy dropout wasn't capitalised on, and it took until injury-time for a genuine opportunity to be created.

Simon Emms and Marc Stcherbina combined down the blindside to roll into Wasps' 22. Emms knocked on in the tackle, but as Wasps tried to run it out, the ball was held on and Paul Grayson - who had come on for Drahm on the half-hour - slotted the three-pointer.

Now back to the Dawson try.

One advantage of having watched this game from the press box was that you could hear the wisdom of a certain M Bayfield esq who had watched the Wasps' club video replay at half time, and initial viewings showed the first try was contentious to say the least. Dawson didn't touch the ball down; the ball was still in play; Reihana didn't touch the ball down or throw the ball forward. The only explanation is that the referee made the same mistake as Bruce or that the ball was touched by a Saints player in flight.

However, the deed had been done, and Saints came out fighting as the second half opened, an attitude rewarded by a second Grayson penalty.

But Lord's 45th minute sinbinning put Saints back under the cosh. And the seven-man pack was fortunate when Dawson decided to kick the ball out of a five-metre Saints scrum to allow Grayson to clear the lines.

By this time Saints attack was static and desparate, in complete contrast to the hosts, who were looking for the bonus point. Voyce, King and Lewsey all showed dancing feet to put the defence under more pressure.

It didn't get any better for the Saints and Diggin in particular. He'd been stretching his right leg all game and when chasing Reihana's speculative kick ahead he pulled up clutching his hamstring. Sackey and Ayoola Erinle ensured that the ball didn't go dead and with Saints down to 13 men it was only a matter of time before Wasps secured their bonus point through Van Gisbergen.

With the game safe, Wasps rang the changes, and the game was summed up in two short minutes. With an overlap the Saints still managed to run the attack up dead-end street, whereas Wasps next attack ripped through, Erinle offloading his first pass of the afternoon to Sackey. It was all one-way traffic, and only Van Gisbergen's being held up stopped the score growing further.

Saints looked to have regained some pride, having not given up in attack and somehow plugged the defence after Van Gisbergen's 53rd minute score, although they were still missing too many first-up tackles. But in injury-time Wasps put the gloss on their performance.

Voyce landed his hat-trick after another interception, this time Van Gisbergen snaffling John Rudd's pass deep in Wasps' half. Voyce finished well, but didn't have the last word. That belonged to Van Gisbergen, who rounded off the deserved win with his second, and Wasps' sixth try.

That was the match - now for the mourning. There is none of the gut-wrenching disappointment that followed the Saracens' defeat two weeks ago. What there is, however, is the unshakeable feeling that we are now watching the long, slow funereal march towards the First Division.

Yes, the first try should not have been given on many levels. Yes, there were two interceptions resulting in tries for Wasps. And yes, Digger's hamstring meant that he couldn't be in place to at least offer some resistance for Van Gisbergen's first try.

But the capitulation that followed the first try was almost Solomons-esque. And any resemblance of attacking play was meat and drink to the Wasps defence. For example, Cohen didn't receive the ball going forward once, and the only time he had the ball deep he was                                            a) surrounded by fellow Saints, and                                                                                      b) confronted with Erinle two metres away.

It was also damning that Howard and Drahm were replaced by Fulton and Grayson only on the half-hour; and while this stabilised the ship somewhat, there was still precious little to offer. Indeed, the biggest cheer of the second half was reserved for Brian the bus driver when he was asked by the PA announcer to move the bus.

On the other hand, they were up against a Wasps side that, once they had got the bit between their teeth, showed the killer touches that have taken them to two successive Premierships.

Nevertheless, as the song from Evita goes, where do we go from here? Well, at least it looks to me that we'll have Cohen next week, as he was completely outclassed by Voyce, who would certainly be in my international squad. And for the first 30 minutes we were competitive, taking a dubious try to break the deadlock. And next week should present a Leicester side shorn of at least half its numbers. And the lineout worked well today.

But how, and if, Budge pulls this around is beyond me.

With six matches left we are even more reliant on other results helping us out, and we can only hope that Harlequins and Leeds maintain their current abysmal form. But as London Irish's fightback at Sarries showed, and as with the events of a decade ago, nothing can be taken for granted.

Except for one thing. The last game against Worcester isn't going to matter one bit.