Wasps sink Bath but pay price with fresh injury for England lock Joe Launchbury
Wasps’ miserable run of Gallagher Premiership results ended as they won a game of nine tries 39-29 against Bath at the Ricoh Arena.
The hosts had lost nine of their previous 11 games but they survived a strong second-half rally from Bath to pick up a morale-boosting victory.
Thomas Young scored two of their tries while Josh Bassett, Michael Le Bourgeois and Paolo Odogwu delivered the others, with Jacob Umaga adding two penalties and four conversions.
Miles Reid, Josh McNally, Beno Obano and Ben Spencer scored Bath’s tries as Orlando Bailey added a penalty and three conversions.
On his 150th appearance for the club, hooker Tom Dunn led out Bath but they were soon behind when Young celebrated his 100th league appearance for Wasps by finishing off a driving line-out.
The hosts should then have had a second try when full-back Rob Miller made a clean break but, with the line beckoning, his inside pass failed to find the supporting Dan Robson.
Young’s try was therefore the only score of a scrappy first quarter, with both sides making elementary handling errors to prevent any flow to the game.
Wasps temporarily lost Wales international lock Will Rowlands to a blood injury assessment and they suffered another blow when Umaga missed with a 45-metre penalty attempt.
Bath were second best for most of the opening period so it was against the run of play when they drew level in the 29th minute with a try from flanker Reid, who drove over from a five-metre line-out.
Wasps suffered a crucial blow when their captain Joe Launchbury was helped from the field with a leg injury but they should have regained the lead when Odogwu burst through the defence. However, the wing elected to go it alone and the chance was lost.
Minutes later Umaga was presented with a similar kick to his first and this time he made no mistake before he made the running to provide Bassett with a 35-metre run-in for Wasps’ second try. Umaga’s touchline conversion gave his side a deserved 15-5 half-time lead.
Five minutes after the restart, Bailey kicked a straightforward penalty but the home side immediately responded with a skilfully created third try.
In a flowing move covering 50 metres, Umaga and Malakai Fekitoa combined effectively to send Le Bourgeois over but Bath came back into contention when McNally crashed over from close range.
Bath brought on Spencer at scrum-half to replace Will Chudley but the hosts picked up the next score with a second penalty from Umaga.
The visitors’ pack was becoming increasingly dominant and Bath were rewarded with a third try when replacement Obano battled over his way over to bring his team back within three points.
Bath then went ahead for the only time in the match when the impressive Reid burst through to send Spencer over for the bonus-point try, but late tries from Young and Odogwu earned Wasps a season’s double over their opponents.
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No he's just limited in what he can do. Like Scott Robertson. And Eddie Jones.
Sometimes it doesn't work out so you have to go looking for another national coach who supports his country and believes in what he is doing. Like NZ replacing Ian Foster. And South Africa bringing Erasmus back in to over see Neinbar.
This is the real world. Not the fantasy oh you don't need passion for your country for international rugby. Ask a kiwi, or a south african or a frenchman.
Go to commentsDont complain too much or start jumping to conclusions.
Here in NZ commentators have been blabbing that our bottom pathway competition the NPC (provincial teams only like Taranaki, Wellington etc)is not fit for purpose ie supplying players to Super rugby level then they started blabbing that our Super Rugby comp (combined provincial unions making up, Crusaders, Hurricanes, etc) wasn't good enough without the South African teams and for the style SA and the northern powers play at test level.
Here is what I reckon, Our comps are good enough for how WE want to play rugby not how Ireland, SA, England etc play. Our comps are high tempo, more rucks, mauls, running plays, kicks in play, returns, in a game than most YES alot of repetition but that builds attacking skillsets and mindsets. I don't want to see world teams all play the same they all have their own identity and style as do England (we were scared with all this kind of talk when they came here) World powerhouse for a reason, losses this year have been by the tiniest of margins and could have gone either way in alot of games. Built around forward power and blitz defence they have got a great attack Wingers are chosen for their Xfactor now not can they chase up and unders all day. Stick to your guns its not far off
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