Wasps bag a bonus in Stinger clash

Editor

London Wasps scored five tries at a sun-bathed Twickenham to see off rivals Gloucester 38-30 in Saturday's Premiership clash.

London Wasps scored five tries at a sun-bathed Twickenham to see off rivals Gloucester 38-30 in Saturday's Premiership clash.

The game was watched by close to 40,000 fans, and they were treated to a tight, high-scoring encounter between two teams who'd struggled for consistency in recent weeks.

A hard-fought start was reflected just over ten minutes into the game, when the two teams exchanged converted tries. First, Will Helu's break laid the platform for James Haskell to score, but a few short minutes after Andy Goode had added the conversion, the scores were again level.

Gloucester's Jonny May capitalised on a fumbled ball from the kick-off to score, and Billy Twelvetrees added the goal following the TMO's confirmation.

Wasps edged back in front through Goode's penalty goal, and they stretched their advantage when Tom Varndell intercepted to race away and score. Goode again added the conversion, and though Gloucester rallied through three Twelvetrees penalty before the interval, a third Wasps try of the half, scored by Elliot Daly following good work from Chris Bell, established a healthy half-time lead.

A tighter opening to the second half meant there were no additions to the scoreline until the 60th minute, when Ashley Johnson crossed for Wasps. Gloucester found a quick response through Huia Edmonds, but by now time was against them, and when Haskell added his second try on 73 minutes it left Gloucester with a real mountain to climb.

Freddie Burns closed the scoring on 78 minutes, but it was too little too late for Gloucester, as Wasps bounced back from defeat to Leicester last week with a deserved win.

The scorers:

For Wasps:
Tries: Haskell 2, Varndell, Daly, Johnson
Cons: Goode 4, Carlisle
Pen: Goode
Yellow cards: Johnson, Masi

For Gloucester:
Tries: May, Edmonds, Burns
Cons: Twelvetrees 3
Pens: Twelvetrees 3

The teams:

Wasps: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Will Helu, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Chris Bell (c), 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Joe Simpson, 8 Nathan Hughes, 7 James Haskell, 6 Ashley Johnson, 5 Kearnan Myall, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 1 Matt Mullan
Replacements: 16 Tom Lindsay, 17 Simon McIntyre, 18 Phil Swainston, 19 Tom Palmer, 20 Sam Jones, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Joe Carlisle, 23 Charlie Hayter

Gloucester: 15 Rob Cook, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Jonny May, 12 Mike Tindall, 11 Martyn Thomas, 10 Billy Twelvetrees (c), 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Matt Kvesic, 6 Sione Kalamafoni, 5 James Hudson, 4 Elliott Stooke, 3 Shaun Knight, 2 Huia Edmonds, 1 Nick Wood
Replacements: 16 Dan George, 17 Dan Murphy, 18 Yann Thomas, 19 Lua Lokotui, 20 Ross Moriarty, 21 Dan Robson, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Bill Meakes

Referee: Wayne Barnes
Assistant referees: Stuart Terheege, Roger Baileff
TMO: David Grashoff