Wasps ended Bristol's 10-match unbeaten home record with a clinical display of
finishing in muddy conditions at the Memorial Stadium.
The Londoners moved third behind runaway Premiership leaders and
champions-elect Leicester and second-placed Northampton through tries from
full-back Josh Lewsey, flanker Joe Worsley and lock Joe Beardshaw.
It means that if Tigers beat Welford Road visitors Newcastle next Saturday,
and Wasps lose at Bath, then Leicester will take the league title for a
remarkable third successive season.
But should Wasps win, then Martin Johnson and company must wait a little
longer before cracking open the champagne.
Delaying the inevitable it might be, yet Wasps are now the only team capable
of keeping those celebrations on ice.
All their tries came during a 19-minute spell either side of half-time,
leaving Bristol to reflect on what might have been after an aggressive forward
effort deserved far better.
Bristol's backs were the problem, offering nothing in attack, a display which
badly let down the contribution of a juggernaut pack.
Bristol's misery behind the scrum was emphasised on 32 minutes when wild
parties thrown out by centre Eduardo Simone and full-back Lee Best enabled Wasps
to claim an unlikely 75-metre breakaway score.
Rob Henderson galloped clear, and with Bristol's defence non-existent Lewsey
finished things off.
Worsley's was the short-range injury-time effort gave Bristol a second half
mountain climb, and four Philipe Contepomi penalties predictably proved
insufficient.
Beardshaw's try, a superb effort which rewarded excellent approach work
featuring the impressive Kenny Logan and flanker Paul Volley, meant the game was
up for Bristol with more than a quarter of the match still remaining.
Wasps went flat out for a bonus point during the closing 20 minutes, but they
were denied by a combination of poor handling and spirited Bristol defence.
England hooker Phil Greening made his first Premiership appearance of 2001,
going on as a 63rd minute substitute Trevor Leota and showing no ill-effects of
knee surgery that has sidelined him since early December.
Bristol, whose last home defeat in any competition was against London Irish
last September, kept plugging away, yet despite the promptings of their
mercurial skipper Agustin Pichot, there was no invention outside him to make a
telling difference.
Logan and Contepomi exchanged early penalties, and the only other talking
points of a scrappy first period until Lewsey's try, were separate flare-ups
between Leota and his opposite number Neil McCarthy another incident involving
Pichot and Wasps wing Paul Sampson.
Once the visitors had established a worthwhile lead though, there was no
stopping them as the experience of players like captain Lawrence Dallaglio, prop
Will Green and Logan shone through.
The only potential blot on Wasps' landscape was an injury to Irish star
Henderson, who was helped from the field on 74 minutes clutching his arm.
Bristol:
Pens: Contepomi 4.
Team: Best, Rees, Simone, Mayer, S. Brown, Contepomi,
Pichot, Johnstone, McCarthy, Crompton, Archer, A. Brown, Short,
Vander, Salter.
Not Used: Morgan, Fullman, Sheridan, Williams, Baber, Reeves,
Marsden.
Wasps:
Tries: Lewsey, Worsley, Beardshaw.
Cons: Logan 3.
Pens: Logan.
Team: Lewsey, Sampson, Denney, Henderson, Logan, King, Wood,
Molloy, Leota, Green, Birkett, Beardshaw, Worsley, Volley,
Dallaglio.
Not Used: Bijon, Greening, Roiser, Waters, Scrivener,
Le Chevalier.
Att: 5,444
Ref: John Barnard (RFU).
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