Kenny Logan proved his versatility by plugging the gap as Wasps beat London
rivals Saracens for the sixth-successive time.
The Scotland international took over the goal-kicking duties as Wasps turned a
7-3 deficit into a 13-10 lead while Alex King was off the field for 13 minutes
in the first half receiving treatment to a cut nose.
Then when scrum-half Martyn Wood was sin-binned for 10 minutes, each side of
half-time, Logan switched from the left wing to help Wasps shrug off playing
with 14 men as they moved from 16-16 to 26-16.
Wasps, benefiting from the three-day rest granted by director of rugby Warren
Gatland following last week's 27-27 draw at Bath, ran out comfortable winners
after Josh Lewsey scored the best try of the match just after half-time.
But the flow of a high-scoring game was interrupted by too many penalties and
Saracens also lost a man to the sin bin - replacement Ryan Peacey, who was
punished in the second half after replacing Ben Russell when the number eight
suffered an ankle injury midway through the first half.
The place-kickers capitalised with King, Logan and Mark van Gisbergen of
Wasps, and Saracens' Andy Goode landing 15 out of 16 between them.
King, whose last-gasp, injury-time drop goal salvaged Wasps last week's draw
at Bath, struck first with a third-minute penalty.
Goode, Sarries' summer signing from champions Leicester, added the conversion
after providing the precision chip through for centre Kevin Sorrell to touch
down after 15 minutes.
Wasps struck back three minutes later when forward pressure carried prop
forward Craig Dowd over. Logan converted and then kicked the penalty, cancelled
out by one from Goode, before King returned.
Opposing fly-halves Goode and King landed two more first-half penalties each
but it was Wasps who struck the all-important blow in the first minute of the
second half.
England scrum-half Kyran Bracken knocked on and from the scrum right wing
Lewsey burst through two tackles on the left for a try which King converted.
King contributed two more penalties before former England captain Lawrence
Dallaglio burst through for a 68th-minute try. King missed the easy conversion
for the only kicking failure of the afternoon.
There was no stopping Wasps now and replacement John Rudd raced over in the
left-hand corner to secure them their bonus points with van Gisbergen, the
newcomer from New Zealand club Waikato, marking his debut with the conversion.
Goode forced his way over for a late consolation try for Saracens and added
the conversion to take his personal haul to 18 points but it was too little too
late.
Wasps had the final say when Dowd plunged over for his second try in the final
seconds for van Gisbergen to again convert.
Teams
Wasps: Sampson, Lewsey,
Abbott, Denney, Logan, A. King, Wood,
Dowd, Greening, W. Green, Shaw, Birkett, Worsley, Volley,
Dallaglio.
Not Used: Howley, van Gisbergen, Rudd, Gotting, Beardshaw,
McCarthy, Molloy.
Sin Bin: Wood (35).
Tries: Dowd 2, Lewsey, Dallaglio, Rudd.
Cons: Logan, A. King, van Gisbergen 2.
Pens: A. King 5, Logan.
Saracens: Castaignede,
Shanklin, Johnson, Sorrell, O'Mahony,
Goode, Bracken, Ross, Cairns, Marsters, Hooper, Yandell,
Chesney, Hill, B. Russell.
Not Used: Croall, Parkes, Benazzi, Peacey, Williams, Little,
Winnan.
Sin Bin: Peacey (44).
Tries: Sorrell, Hooper.
Cons: Goode 2.
Pens: Goode 3.
Att: 8,517
Ref: Ashley Rowden (RFU).
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