Wasps 40-33 Worcester: Wade brace sends Wasps clear

Match stats

Wasps tries: Rowlands (11), Wade (14,40), Leiua (54), Bassett (66), Macken (73)
Conversions: Gopperth (14, 40, 66), Leiua (54), Cipriani (73) 

Worcester tries: Heem (5), Adams (23,38), Alo (76), Willison (80)
Conversions: Mills (23, 38, 76, 80) 

Match report

Wasps moved five points clear of Exeter at the top of the Aviva Premiership with a 40-33 win over Worcester at the Ricoh Arena.

However the victory was far from straightforward as struggling Worcester were the better team until wing Bryce Heem was sent off in the 45th minute for a reckless challenge on Willie Le Roux.

The scoreline was 19-19 at that stage of the contest - but with their numerical advantage, error-ridden Wasps did just enough to pick up the points.

Christian Wade scored two tries for the hosts, taking his tally to 79 for the club to draw level with Kenny Logan at the top of their scoring chart. Will Rowlands, Josh Bassett, Brendan Macken and Alapati Leiua also crossed with Jimmy Gopperth adding four conversions and Danny Cipriani one.

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Josh Adams scored two tries for Worcester, Heem, Jackson Willison and Biyi Alo one apiece, with four conversions from Ryan Mills completing the scoring.

Worcester took a surprise fifth minute lead when, from a five-metre scrum, Heem brushed aside a weak tackle from Dan Robson to crash over the line. Mills missed a simple conversion attempt.

The hosts responded when Robson provided a scoring pass for Rowlands - and although Gopperth surprisingly missed the conversion it mattered little as Wasps soon scored their second try.

On halfway, a pass from Cipriani gave Wade his chance and he evaded a poor attempt at a tackle from Heem to race 50m past some questionable defence to score.

The visitors blew a golden opportunity after a strong run from Dean Hammond created an overlap - but somehow Josh Adams and Heem confused each other and the scoring pass from Mills was knocked forward, allowing Ashley Johnson to clear.

However Warriors were not to be denied for long and after declining two kickable penalties, they were rewarded when a clever pass from Francois Hougaard sent Adams over in the corner.

A touchline conversion from Mills levelled the scores after 24 minutes and Worcester's impressive beginning could have got even better - but Heem's try was harshly ruled out for crossing.

Warriors, who dominated the first half, regained the lead when incisive bursts from Heem and Chris Vui put the home defence on the back foot before Adams was left with an easy run-in.

With the last movement of the half, Wasps replied with their third try when Chris Pennell missed a tackle on Wade, who skipped over the line for Gopperth to convert and make it 19-19 at the end of a breathtaking 40 minutes.

James Haskell was replaced at the interval by Guy Thompson before Cipriani booted the restart straight out of play.

From the resulting scrum, Worcester prop Val Rapava-Ruskin suffered an injury and he was replaced by Ryan Bower, before Heem was sent off.

A flowing movement from Wasps ended with Leiua scoring the bonus point try but the home side still struggled to quell the spirit of the Warriors.

However in the final quarter, the loss of Heem finally told with tries from Bassett and Macken, before Matt Mullan was yellow carded - and Worcester took advantage to achieve two well deserved bonus points with late tries from Alo and Willison.

Match reaction

Director of rugby Dai Young on Wasps' performance: "It's a win and five points but there were very few areas of our game that pleased me. Worcester won nearly all the 50-50s and were first to react in terms of mind and deed and our performance didn't match the five points.

"Christian was probably the difference but I always thought that we could respond if we needed to as we probably had that extra bit of quality. It was a big message to us as we will have to be better against Leinster next week as they will match us for quality so we'll have to prove that we've got the belly for the fight."

Worcester interim director of rugby Gary Gold said: "We knew we had to put in an incredibly strong performance and we showed huge character in an absolutely outstanding effort. We are a good team and improving but we want to keep our feet on the ground, although I believe we've turned the corner.

"Losing a game is still not satisfactory and I don't want us to have the mindset that losing bonus points are sufficient. We defended very well but we conceded two tries to Wade, who is a world class finisher. If you don't get him first time, you end up chasing shadows."

Gold on the sending off of Heem: "Bryce was unfortunate but the referee had no choice. Luke is a good ref, he let the game flow and it was fun to watch.

"If our try had been allowed in the first half, anything may have happened but it didn't look good. I'd like to review it but I don't want to make excuses as we had a couple of really good chances but failed to take them as our execution was poor."