Great try for Wasps: Christian Wade
Related links
Teams
Also see
London Wasps climbed into the top four of the Premiership standings on Sunday thanks to an impressive 29-15 win over Bath at Adams Park.
Two superb tries from Christian Wade and Chris Bell and 17 points from the boot of Stephen Jones helped Wasps move ahead of both Gloucester and Northampton.
Bath made a scintillating start to the game when a superb individual try scored by Nick Abendanon after only 26 seconds put the visitors in front. The England full-back gathered a loose clearance kick on the half-way line before brushing aside several Wasps' defenders to race to the try-line.
A Stephen Jones penalty reduced the arrears before Tom Varndell was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle on his opposite number, Horacio Agulla.
Bath made the most of the numerical advantage as a powerful forward drive enabled Michael Claassens to snipe in to score in the right hand corner. Stephen Donald's touch-line conversion extended Bath's lead to 12-3.
Two further penalties from Jones and the sin-binning of Bath second row Dominic Day put the home side in the ascendency in this sea-saw encounter.
Wasps' impressive ball recycling and inter-linking play between their forwards and backs allowed Wade to exploit the space and finish off a try of true quality. Jones' successful conversion was the last act of an enthralling first half.
Bath's replacement fly-half Tom Heathcote and Jones traded penalties to leave the game finely poised with 25 minutes remaining. As the game wore on, Wasps composed dominance in all facets was beginning to become more evident as they took control of proceedings.
Bath's soaring penalty-count due largely to the sustained pressure being inflicted by the Wasps forward runners allowed the metronomic Jones to convert his fifth penalty of the game.
Wasps sealed the victory thanks to Bell's try, converted by replacement fly-half Nick Robinson.
In the try-scoring process Abendanon tripped Elliot Daly and was rightly sent to the sin-bin for foul play.
The victory means Wasps have now won their last nine games at Adams Park.
The scorers:
For Wasps:
Tries: Wade, Bell
Cons: S. Jones, Robinson
Pens: S. Jones 5
Yellow cards: Varndell
For Bath:
Tries: Abendanon, Claassens
Cons: Donald
Pens: Heathcote
Yellow cards: Day, Abendanon
Wasps: 15 Hugo Southwell (c), 14 Christian Wade, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Chris Bell, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Joe Simpson, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 James Haskell, 6 Ashley Johnson, 5 James Cannon, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Phil Swainston, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 Zak Taulafo.
Replacements: 16 Tom Lindsay, 17 Tim Payne, 18 Will Taylor, 19 Marco Wentzel, 20 Sam Jones, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Nick Robinson, 23 Andrea Masi.
Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Kyle Eastmond, 12 Matt Banahan, 11 Tom Biggs, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Michael Claassens, 8 Ben Skirving, 7 Guy Mercer, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Dominic Day, 4 Stuart Hooper (capt), 3 David Wilson, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Tom Dunn, 17 Charlie Beech, 18 Anthony Perenise, 19 Dave Attwood, 20 Will Skuse, 21 Mark McMillan, 22 Tom Heathcote, 23 Dan Hipkiss.
Venue: Adams Park
Referee: Andrew Small
Assistant referees: Kevin Stewart, Nigel Carrick
Television match official: David Grashoff
Timekeeper: John Burtenshaw
Comments
Lucasrg says...
@TVaddict
not too sure about Vuinipola as a "top quality" player, he is good and exiting to watch ball in hand, bunt on scrum time he needs to work a lot to controll the ball with his feet, there where 3 occasions or so that the ball fumbled out from his ffet creating a bit of panic. Lauchbury instead was impressive and deserves the English jersey.
Posted 14:48 09th January 2013
jamesliveinhope says...
This is the first season where I've seen very little of Bath but it troubles me that we seem able to scores tries but are losing matches against sides with a good kicking game - I worry that (a) Barkley is still our best scorer from the tee this term and (b) for all the steel that seems to have been put into our defence it seems to have been at the expense of any ability to occupy territory and pick teams off.
I suspect that the perseverance with Donald at 10 is part of the problem - maybe he would be better at 12 with Heathcote inside of him but i said when Gold was announced as head coach that I worried that all he had managed to achieve with Falcons was to reduce the losing margin, I know that we are relatively safe at the moment but both sale and irish are better than their performances so far and, if they get any kind of momentum - the prospect of relegation is not yet unrealistic.
Posted 21:33 07th January 2013
1st58 says...
@AP: Sadly the Donald contract has a huge impact on the salary cap, so until he is gone there is a real limit to what can be done - however putting the likes of Mercer out to face big powerful back rows is just crazy, I also hope the rmours about Ford prove to be untrue - he isn't that good and frail defensively.
Perhaps we supporters should give Donald so much grief he packs his bags and leaves early....if only!
Posted 13:47 07th January 2013
APV1 says...
@ ArmchairGeneral - I'm in mourning for chances squandered. Bendy is, as I've said many time, under-rated and should be fighting Brown, Foden and Goode for the England 15 shirt (Brown still edges it for me, btw).
Heathcote should be starting, despite selling his soul to Scotland. He just doesn't get enough 1st team starts at the moment, and his form is suffering as a result. He has the skills and talent, just lacks the experience.
Claassens will be well missed if he leaves.
@ 1st58 - you're spot on about the back row. Flo cannot do it all alone. And I have to agree that all those mentioned in your second post are not performing well enough. We have (arguably) the best training facilities in the AP, coupled with a fat cheque book. Why can't the powers that be see what we do?
Wasps deserved their well-earned win, but it's still very disappointing.
Posted 11:07 07th January 2013
GCP_jones says...
its great to see Wasps back with their game face on, the rugby the team played for Wade's try was just a joy to watch.
How good a player is Joe Lauchbury, England have a gem there.
Posted 10:45 07th January 2013
ArmchairGeneral says...
APV1...?
Posted 07:49 07th January 2013
jontheref says...
Don't listen to barnes, vardell's yellow was derserved in law, so he had to go.
Consistency from the ref?
We don;t get it from the commentators, so why do the moan about the guy who sees it in real time?
Maybe one of Bath's PK's were lucky, but it was called by the TJ.
The 2nd Wasps PK was from a ball by Simpson, when he had picked the ball up, so ball out, and held it for a count of 4 before moving.
mears quite entitled to move forward.
But, no, this was not in the muppets script, so could not comment on it!
Tidy game, well finished off.
Posted 22:55 06th January 2013
TVaddict says...
Vunipola, Wade and Daly were top quality again. Wade and Daly into the England squad and Vunipola into the saxons.
The Varndell yellow was a joke, but I thought Ashley Johnson's spear tackle off the ball and after play had stopped deserved a red.
Posted 21:25 06th January 2013
kybone says...
Great game slightly spoiled by poor refereeing. The two yellows in that first half were a joke as was the penalty for Bath at the start of the 2nd. One thing i noticed during the intro to the game how relatively lightweight a lot of the Bath players were compared with their Wasps counterpart ie.Baths heaviest back-row player was less than 17st where as Wasps heaviest was over 20st, also all 3 of Baths 3/4 weighed in at less than 14st. Add to that a centre of only 12st 5lb, and thats a pretty lightweight team all round. I know Banahan makes up for some of that but maybe a large part of Baths problem is sheer lack of size and power.
Posted 21:21 06th January 2013
Honestpom says...
Great to see Wasps on the up after a couple of tough years by their lofty standards. Christian Wade is something else, reminds me a bit of Shane Williams only maybe a bit stronger. What a brilliant signing Ashley Johnson has proved to be as well. Bet Bath wished they had signed him instead of Donald.
Posted 19:26 06th January 2013
melkdave says...
Thjat was a very good match imo,both sides showed promise,but in the end Wasps deserved the victory imo.If /When these sides get a decent pack,they will certinally be contenders,Have to agree somwhat with @1st58 there are to many journeymen atm at Bath,and a clearout is needed ,though maybe not on the scale his envisagesTaylor and a few others really in imo,.Really Bath should be looking at its acadamy players to come though,it has certinally worked for Wasps,though they nearly paid the price last year..They now have alot of confidance,and experiance.
Posted 18:28 06th January 2013
LondonWasp says...
pleased that we are finally in the top 4, but how long will it last?..... a good couple of hard matches to come, like Quins away will be tricky....
c'mon u WASSSSSSSSSSPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
Posted 18:14 06th January 2013
1st58 says...
Here are some changes i would make:
Props: Perenise clearly cant play tighthead at this level - shame as he is such a force in the loose - is he worth a try at l/head, if not adios.
Charlie B - also excellent in the loose, but if his scummaging cannot be improved then goodbye.
Catt - too injury prone and inconsistent scrummager (would love to have seen him tried at hooker - au revoir.
Palme Newport - is he really able to scrummage at premiership level ?
2nd Row - Hoops too much of a hybrid player - we need another big aggressive lump to play alongside Attwood - byeeee
Back row - Skirv, Taylor, Skuse, Mercer, Ovens - thanks all and goodbye.
S/H Macmillan - goodbye, nowhere near good enough
Donald - as soon as we can get him out of thaty crazy contract the better
Other backs: Hipkiss, Cuthbert, Vesty - bye guys.
Posted 17:45 06th January 2013
1st58 says...
Congrats to Wasps, by far the better side, and another abject display of refereeing by Mr Small had no bearing on the result.
As a Batrh supporter I am seriously fed up - yet again Loouw got so little back up from his back row colleagues..Mercer (again) seen to be lacking in physicality and just brushed aside by the powefrul back row, Skirving we know isnt good enough( ok, a good cover tackle on Varndell), nor would the likes of Skuse or Taylor make any difference.It just isnt possible to be truly competitive with only 1 class back rower on duty
I really feel for the likes of Biggsy and Abendenon, and Easty - we have some real talent in the backs, but our forwards just lack an edge, and it is just absolutely infuriating to watch this type of performance.
Donald's contract may be crippling us on the salary cap (thanks SIM) - and I pray the rumours about us looking at George Ford are NOT true - Leics let go of players to France for financial reasons - and to other premiership sides because they have better players in their squad.
There has to be a big clearout at the end of the season, we have many journeymen in the squad and we Must clear out and recruit more intelligently.
Posted 17:17 06th January 2013
Lucasrg says...
Very happy for my Wasps. great control in the second half made it easier. Not too sure about the reff consistency but be did well consoulting his lineman in few occasion.
Good game, and now looking for the playoffs!
Posted 17:07 06th January 2013