The last time these sides met was back in February when Gloucester won 10-9 at Adams Park. Gloucester had won just two from their last six games and Wasps had lost all of their last four matches apart from last weekend’s victory over Bayonne.
In a post-match interview Bryan Redpath said “The players should be proud of themselves. They’ve had a lot of stick over the last couple of months, some of it is justifiable and some of it not.” He added “I think the win was a combination of many things.”
The hosts provided Wasps with a taste of what was to come with two early tries. When Elliot Daly crossed in the first half it looked as though Wasps were still in the game but further tries from Olly Morgan, Henry Trinder and Jonny May stunned the star studded Wasps line-up which included the likes of Riki Flutey and Tom Varndell.
Jonny May and Luke Narraway both scored in the early stages of this fixture after full team efforts in the build-ups to the scores. Freddie Burns managed both conversions which put Gloucester into a healthy 14-0 lead.
Former Gloucester man, Nicky Robinson, missed his opening penalty kick but Wasps redeemed themselves when Elliot Daly crossed the line after a sustained attack from the visiting forwards pack. Robinson managed the conversion this time to narrow Gloucester’s lead to 7 points.
Gloucester responded in the best possible way by stealing the ball from Wasps inside the visitors’ 22 and played the ball out wide to Jonny May who crossed the line for his second try. Wasps almost replied but two failed attempts from Richard Haughton and Joe Burton added to previous wasted attempts from the visitors. Robinson kicked a penalty to round off the half with the score at 19-10 to Gloucester.
A Freddie Burns penalty early in the second half was followed by two tries from Gloucester full-back, Olly Morgan. His first try came after a magnificent pass from Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu and his second came from a Freddie Burns cross-field kick which was gathered by Trinder who offloaded to Morgan for the score.
Henry Trinder scored a try earlier in the half after Joe Simpson fumbled the ball past his own try line, allowing Trinder to gather the ball for the score.
The win puts Gloucester at fifth in the Aviva Premiership table whilst Wasps remain in ninth place.
Gloucester: Morgan (Sharples 61); May, Trinder, Fuimaono-Sapolu (Mills 73), Simpson-Daniel; Burns (Cox 73), R Lawson (Lewis 67); Wood (Murphy 67), S Lawson (Dawidiuk 65), Harden (Chistolini 67), Buxton, Hamilton, Strokosch (Deacon 70), Qera, Narraway (capt).
Wasps: Southwell (Varndell 39); Haughton, Daly, Flutey, Wade; Robinson, Simpson (Berry 67); Payne, Webber (Lindsay 53), Broster, O'Donoghue, Wentzel (capt), Birkett, Everard, Burton (Jones 53).
26 December 2011
