Bath hammer Wasps

Editor

Tom Biggs scored a first-half hat-trick as Bath crushed London Wasps 43-10 in the Aviva Premiership at Twickenham on Saturday.

Tom Biggs scored a first-half hat-trick as Bath destroyed London Wasps 43-10 in the Aviva Premiership at Twickenham on Saturday.

The bonus-point allows Bath to keep their slender play-off hopes alive.

The West Country men now face relegation-threatened Newcastle in their remaining two games and will hope for back-to-back victories as they seek to sneak a top-four finish.

Bath led inside the fourth minute when scrum-half Michael Claassens found Nick Abendanon and his neat offload allowed Biggs to crash over the line from close range.

The impressive Sam Vesty landed the conversion and then added a penalty to put his side 10-0 up in the 23rd minute.

Three minutes later, Bath fashioned a superb second try when Claasens' long pass found England centre Matt Banahan marauding down the left channel.

Banahan showed intelligence to send Biggs scampering clear for a try that Vesty converted to put his side 17-0 ahead. In the 35th minute, Banahan grabbed the 30th Premiership try of his career after some brilliant work from Claasens.

Vesty added the extras and shortly before the break Biggs produced another fine finish to complete his treble. Wasps, whose only points of the first half came from a solitary penalty from departing fly-half Dave Walder, knew the game was effectively over with the scoreline 29-3 in Bath's favour at the break.

In the 55th minute, Banahan touched down Vesty's fine kick and Vesty converted before Wasps scrum-half Joe Simpson claimed a breakaway try which he converted himself.

But Matt Carraro sauntered over late on for Bath's sixth try and Vesty added the extras to make it 43-10 to Bath.

The scorers:

For Wasps:
Try: Simpson
Con: Simpson
Pen: Walder

For Bath:
Tries: Biggs 3, Banahan 2, Carraro
Cons: Vesty 5
Pen: Vesty

Wasps:15 Elliot Daly, 14 Richard Haughton, 13 Ben Jacobs, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Dave Walder, 9 Joe Simpson, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Dan Ward Smith, 6 John Hart (c), 5 Joe Launchbury, 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Ben Broster, 2 Joe Ward, 1 Zak Taulafo.
Replacements:16 Tom Lindsay, 17 Charlie Beech, 18 Bob Baker, 19 Richard Birkett, 20 Serge Betsen, 21 Nic Berry, 22 Mark Van Gisbergen, 23 Josh Lewsey.

Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Jacques Boussuge, 13 Matt Carraro, 12 Matt Banahan, 11 Tom Biggs, 10 Sam Vesty, 9 Michael Claassens (c), 8 Simon Taylor, 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Ben Skirving, 5 Danny Grewcock, 4 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 3 David Wilson, 2 Lee Mears, 1 David Flatman.
Replacements: 16 Pieter Dixon, 17 Nathan Catt, 18 Duncan Bell, 19 Josh Ovens, 20 Guy Mercer, 21 Mark McMillan, 22 Paul Roberts, 23 Nick Scott.

Venue: Twickenham
Referee: Wayne Barnes