Aviva Premiership: Wasps record first away win of season with victory at Gloucester
Last Updated: 28/12/14 4:54pm
Wasps recorded their first away win of the Premiership season with a 30-23 win over Gloucester at Kingsholm.
Tries from Christian Wade, Tom Varndell and Nathan Hughes complemented another faultless kicking display from Andy Goode to give the visitors a win that keeps them close to the play-off contenders as the year comes to a close.
Gloucester’s Jonny May opened the scoring with just 42 seconds on the clock. A slip in the Wasps midfield defence gave Gloucester a one-man overlap and they punished their opponents with an ideal start in front of their home crowd.
But Wasps were able to hit back shortly afterwards through winger Wade.
Wade was part of the move that sent the ball left to a charging Varndell, who was tackled five metres short of the line but popped the ball to his fellow winger who burst through two defenders to draw his team level after Goode added the conversion.
Greig Laidlaw missed a penalty chance in the 12th minute but Goode made no mistake with his own attempt at goal after he was tackled late in open play.
At the close of the first quarter Goode dropped a chip into the Gloucester 22m area and a wicked bounce left the defenders flailing as Varndell collected the ball to score his team’s second try of the game - at that stage Wasps had churned out 17 unanswered points.
Respond
Gloucester scored a try of their own after flanker Matt Kvesic crossed over the tryline, but once again Wasps were quick to respond.
Another kick from Goode forced Gloucester to run the ball into touch close to their line which resulted in Wasps camping with ball in hand deep in home territory.
A penalty was then put into touch and a driving line-out left Hughes with little more work to do other than to fall over the tryline with ball in hand to give his team a 24-14 lead at half-time.
The opening exchanges in the second half belonged to Gloucester, who scored nine points through the boot of Laidlaw to end the third quarter one point adrift of Wasps, but Goode made it a four-point lead with a penalty in the 64th minute.
Gloucester kept the majority of possession from that moment, but promising opportunities were not turned into points as they continually let themselves down at crucial times.
The hosts were further squeezed out of the game when Elliot Daly stepped up to land a penalty from the edge of his range to take the score to 30-23 with five minutes to play and Wasps held onto that advantage until the final whistle to take a vital victory away from home.
