Saracens beat Worcester to knock London Irish out of the LV= Cup while Bath claimed a big win away at Gloucester on Saturday.
Here is a full round-up of Saturday's LV= Cup matches.
London Wasps 30 - 33 Sale Sharks
A star turn from Danny Cipriani handed Sale Sharks their first away win of the season in the LV= Cup against London Wasps.
Cipriani was one of five try-scorers for the visitors, with Kearnan Myall, Tommy Taylor, Sam Tuitupou and a penalty try contributing to the victory.
Wasps scored three tries of their own through new signing Charlie Hayter, Charlie Davies and number eight Sam Jones in an ill-tempered game that saw Will Taylor and Davies sin-binned for the hosts and Aston Croall for the visitors.
"Any win that gets us to a home semi-final is going to be good for our confidence and we need all the confidence that we can get to be honest," said Sale boss Steve Diamond.
"We're rock-bottom of the Premiership and we've got to get off that."
Wasps: 15 Tommy Bell, 14 Jack Wallace, 13 Jonah Holmes, 12 Charlie Hayter, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Charlie Davies, 8 Sam Jones (c), 7 Matt Everard, 6 Tinus Du Plessis, 5 Marco Wentzel, 4 James Cannon, 3 Will Taylor, 2 Nathan Morris, 1 Zak Taulafo.
Replacements: 16 Tom Lindsay, 17 Simon McIntyre, 18 Harry Williams, 19 Will Rowlands, 20 Jonathan Poff, 21 Stuart Commins, 22 Will Robinson, 23 Chris Bell.
Sale: 15 Cameron Shepherd, 14 Rob Miller, 13 Jonny Leota, 12 Sammy Tuitupou Captain, 11 Charlie Amesbury, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 James Gaskell, 7 Dan Braid, 6 James Doyle, 5 Kearnan Myall, 4 Tom Holmes, 3 Henry Thomas, 2 Tommy Taylor, 1 Ross Harrison.
Replacements: 16 Marc Jones, 17 Aston Croall, 18 Tony Buckley, 19 Tom Cruse, 20 Billy Emerson, 21 Will Cliff, 22 Jordan Davies, 23 Charlie Ingall.
Gloucester 5 - 32 Bath
Bath pulled off their first victory at Kingsholm against rivals Gloucester in six years thanks to five tries.
Olly Woodburn, Nick Abendanon, Mat Gilbert, Semesa Rokoduguni and Stephen Donald handed an emphatic victory to the visitors, with Gloucester only able to respond through a single score from former Wallaby hooker Huia Edmonds.
Gloucester's cause was not helped by the sin-binning of both flanker Andy Hazell and lock Tom Savage in the first half.
"You saw the importance in the fixture - not necessarily in the competition sense but to the two clubs - in the quality of sides that the two clubs put out and that is important in building the way that Bath are trying to move forward," said Bath coach Toby Booth.
"We are in for the long haul and slow and steady improvement. We will see how that pans out but we have spoken about how important it is to pull on a Bath shirt in any competition and we have tried to instil some pride into wearing the shirt. I think you saw that today."
Gloucester: 15 Rob Cook, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Tim Molenaar, 11 Shane Monahan, 10 Ryan Mills, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Sione Kalamafoni, 7 Andy Hazell, 6 Peter Buxton, 5 Lua Lokotui, 4 Tom Savage, 3 Rupert Harden, 2 Huia Edmonds, 1 Dan Murphy.
Replacements: 16 Darren Dawidiuk, 17 Yann Thomas, 18 Tom Heard, 19 Akapusi Qera, 20 Gareth Evans, 21 Dan Robson, 22 Billy Burns, 23 Martyn Thomas.
Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Matt Banahan, 12 Sam Vesty, 11 Olly Woodburn, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Ben Skirving, 7 Carl Fearns, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Dominic Day, 4 Dave Attwood, 3 Anthony Perenise, 2 Rob Webber, 1 Charlie Beech.
Replacements: 16 Ross Batty, 17 Nathan Catt, 18 Kane Palma-Newport, 19 Will Spencer, 20 Mat Gilbert, 21 Chris Cook, 22 Semesa Rokoduguni, 23 Jack Cuthbert.
Worcester Warriors 12 - 22 Saracens
Saracens clinched their place in the LV= Cup semi-finals with a positive win over a strong Worcester Warriors outfit at Sixways.
Mark McCall's side were without several of their first team stars away on international duty, yet managed to upset the hosts thanks to a brace of tries from number eight Ernst Joubert and five penalty kicks from scrum-half Ben Spencer.
Worcester produced two tries of their own through number eight Blair Cowan and winger Josh Drauniniu.
"This group of players don't normally play and they are ring rusty, but
they did extremely well today as it is now eight out of nine wins for us and this one over Worcester, our bogey team," said Saracens coach Alex Sanderson.
"We want to be greedy and win all three. The best sides in history have won all three and that is what we aim to do."
Worcester: 15 Chris Pennell, 14 Josh Drauniniu, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 Josh Matavesi, 11 David Lemi, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Jonny Arr, 8 Blair Cowan, 7 Jake Abbott, 6 Richard de Carpentier, 5 Craig Gillies, 4 James Pervical, 3 John Andress, 2 Aleki Lutui, 1 Ceri Jones.
Replacements: 16 Ed Shervington, 17 Rob O'Donnell, 18 James Currie, 19 Matt Kvesic, 20 Neil Best, 21 Paul Hodgson, 22 Danny Gray, 23 Andy Short.
Saracens: 15 Joe Maddock, 14 Jack Wilson, 13 Sam Stanley, 12 Adam Powell, 11 James Short, 10 Nils Mordt (c), 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Ernst Joubert, 7 Nick Fenton-Wells, 6 Justin Melck, 5 Alex Rae, 4 Alistair Hargreaves, 3 Petrus du Plessis, 2 Jamie George, 1 Nick Auterac.
Replacements: 16 John Smit, 17 Richard Barrington, 18 Matt Stevens, 19 Maro Itoje, 20 Jackson Wray, 21 Luke Baldwin, 22 Chris Wyles, 23 Ben Ransom.
Exeter Chiefs 28 -19 Northampton Saints
Three tries in the opening 26 minutes led Exeter Chiefs to a home win over Northampton Saints in the remaining LV= Cup fixture.
Northampton included England full-back Ben Foden in their starting XV but it was the Chiefs who struck first, with Ben White, Jack Nowell and Watisoni Votu picking up tries.
Argentinean fly-half Ignacio Mieres kicked 13 points to maintain the lead but Northampton fought back with a brace of tries from England scrum-half Lee Dickson and another try from Alex Waller, Dickson's efforts coming in the final 20 minutes of the match after he was introduced as a substitute.
Exeter: 15 Jack Nowell, 14 Watisoni Votu, 13 Ian Whitten, 12 Josh Tatupu, 11 Mark Foster, 10 Ignacio Mieres, 9 Will Chudley, 8 Kai Horstmann (capt), 7 Ben White, 6 Aly Muldowney, 5 James Hanks, 4 Damian Welch, 3 Alex Brown, 2 Jack Yeandle, 1 Carl Rimmer.
Replacements: 16 Tow Cowan-Dickie, 17 Chris Budgen, 18 Lloyd Fairbrother, 19 Will Carrick-Smith, 20 Sam Simmonds, 21 Haydn Thomas, 22 Myles Dorrian, 23 Nic Sestaret.
Northampton: 15 Ben Foden, 14 James Wilson, 13 Dom Waldouck, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 Jamie Elliott, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Martin Roberts, 8 GJ van Velze, 7 Ben Nutley, 6 James Craig, 5 Christian Day, 4 Mark Sorenson, 3 Tom Mercey, 2 Mike Haywood, 1 Alex Waller.
Replacements: 16 Ross Mcmillan, 17 Soane Tonga'uiha, 18 Ethan Waller, 19 Samu Manoa, 20 Phil Dowson, 21 Lee Dickson, 22 Stephen Myler, 23 Tom May.
Comments
APV1 says...
ALLEZ!
Bring on Quins at the Stoop!
Posted 10:37 04th February 2013