Having forgotten how to win, Wasps are targeting a coach who does not remember defeat, Shaun Edwards. Their ninth defeat in 12 league matches against opponents who started as if they had slept through their alarm call showed how brittle the 2017 beaten finalists have become. A season that started with a dream of winning the title is turning into a nightmare at the other end of the table.
After taking an 11-0 lead in the opening 18 minutes, Wasps collapsed as readily as a wonky deckchair on a blustery pier. Edwards was part of their management team in the 2000s when they were for a while the leading club in Europe and under him this season Wales have developed the hardest defence to break down in international rugby.
The contrast between Wasps and Wales was stark. The former missed 17 tackles here in the opening 50 minutes, several of them coming in a three-minute spell towards the end of the opening half when Gloucester remembered they were play-off contenders and started to create space rather than try to play with width for the sake of it or rely on Ben Morgan.
It is not just a coach like Edwards Wasps are in need of. Their recruitment policy in recent years has seen legions of players come and go in contrast to the squad stability practiced by the top two clubs, Exeter and Saracens. Lining up against them here was Danny Cipriani, their former outside-half, and among the players in their final few weeks with Wasps were Elliot Daly, Willie le Roux and Joe Simpson.
“Shaun would be fantastic for us,” said Wasps director of rugby, Dai Young. “We have spoken to him and made our interest known in someone who is a big part of the club’s history, but I know we are one of a number of options he has. I do not know where we stand and we will be talking to him when he is back from holiday.”
Edwards would have had something to say about the two tries Wasps conceded towards the end of the first half. The first try came after Mark Atkinson stretched the defence from first-phase and Tom Marshall, operating at full-back after Jason Woodward suffered a knee injury, broke Rob Miller’s tackle and freed Willi Heinz with an inside pass. It was not quite Gloucester’s first attack, but it contained the purpose that had been missing.
The second gave Gloucester, who moved to third, the lead. There was nothing on when Ollie Thorley received the ball as he hugged the left wing, but he is establishing a reputation as a player who is never more dangerous than when tacklers are not on alert. He stepped away from Marcus Watson and left Le Roux flapping. He was hauled down by Nizaam Carr on the line, but Ruan Ackermann was in support to pick up and score.
Gloucester led 14-11 at the interval despite their somnolence in the first 30 minutes. Wasps took the lead with an early Rob Miller penalty and, unlike their hosts, tried to create room behind by using ball-carriers to get over the gainline. When Nathan Hughes broke two tackles on 15 minutes, Watson scored in the corner after Thorley went too high on his opposite number.
A second Miller penalty looked to have put Wasps in control, but their wretched run of form, two victories in all competitions in the last four months, has left them in need of the belief that Edwards brings with him.
They stood up in an uninspiring second half, but did not capitalise on the yellow card shown to Gloucester’s second row Franco Mostert for clattering into a prone Hughes. Billy Twelvetrees and Miller exchanged penalties before Daly missed one from long-range.
Another from Twelvetrees left Wasps with a bonus point to cling to, but fate conspired against Wasps and Jake Polledri loomed on the left wing to score a late try to make the call to Edwards all the more pressing.