Wasps’ six-match winning streak in the Premiership is over. A last-second drop-goal attempt by Jimmy Gopperth almost preserved the unbeaten run with a draw, but that would have been harsh on Gloucester. They are no one’s idea of a confident side – and their generosity in failing to clear a scrum after time had run out was extraordinary – but this was a game they dominated utterly in the first half, when their main problem was avoiding injury.
All in all, they lost four to serious-looking affairs. Nevertheless, this win takes them to the fringes of the top four. Whether they will have any players left standing to maintain their challenge remains to be seen.
They lost Rob Cook in only the sixth minute, then Henry Purdy in the 20th, before Paddy McAllister went down on the half hour. All three required lengthy treatment; the stretcher came on for injuries one and three, although Cook eventually left on his feet. The first half was more than 50 minutes long.
Gloucester did well to ride the disruption, what’s more to dominate a Wasps team noticeably flat after their glorious recent form. Indeed, if you were to peruse their respective performances at Saracens last month – Wasps putting 60 on the league leaders, Gloucester going down meekly against a team reduced to 14 for an hour – you would not expect much of a contest here at all, with or without the invigorating influence of the Shed.
Wasps could not get anything going, fumbling and passing to no one on a heavy field. Christian Wade and Rob Miller combined nicely down the right to pave the way for three points midway through the half, but it was the fellow on Gloucester’s right who made most impression on the sunny side of the field. Charlie Sharples ghosted through Wasps’ defence twice in the buildup to Gloucester’s try at the end of the first quarter. The home team by then had been hammering away relentlessly, and Greg Laidlaw’s flat pass to Richard Hibbard set up one hammer blow too many. The hooker crashed through George Smith for the game’s first try.
Wade moved to the sunny side for the second half, and within a couple of minutes of the resumption he had lit up the contest as only he can. A fine offload by Sam Jones created the opportunity for Wade to outpace one defender on the outside, cut inside another and burst through the tackle of a third for a typically brilliant solo effort. Wasps were level, and Gloucester must have despaired.
Now it was the away team’s turn to dominate possession. Suddenly, they had all the lineouts, but the scrum contest was edged by Gloucester. Sharples burst off the blindside from one such, and a Wasps infringement at the subsequent ruck allowed Laidlaw to retake the lead just before the hour.
In the final quarter, Gloucester lost their fourth player to injury – Billy Burns, who had replaced Cook with injury No1 – and a chance to stretch the lead. Wasps lost control of the lineout in the final 10 minutes and were forced to pull down a drive but Laidlaw pushed his penalty attempt wide – just as Gopperth did his drop goal with the last kick of the match.
Gloucester Cook (Burns 6; Braley 65); Sharples, Meakes, Twelvetrees, Purdy (Trinder 20); Hook, Laidlaw (capt); McAllister (Thomas 32), Hibbard (Dawidiuk 65), Afoa (Doran-Jones 68), Savage (Galarza 63), Thrush, Kalamafoni, Kvesic, Moriarty (Ludlow 63)
Try Hibbard Con Laidlaw Pens Laidlaw 2
Wasps Miller; Wade, C Piutau, S Piutau, Halai; Gopperth, Robson; Mullan (capt; McIntyre 63), Shervington (Johnson 57), Cooper-Woolley (Cittadini 57), Cannon (Davies 52), Myall, Jones, Smith, Hughes (Rieder 70)
Try Wade Con Gopperth Pen Gopperth
Referee Luke Pearce
Attendance 13,706
Game rating 6/10
