Simpson inspires Wasps win
Joe Simpson was instrumental as Wasps claimed a hard-fought but deserved 17-15 win over Bath at The Rec on Saturday.
Last Updated: 12/09/09 5:39pm
Joe Simpson was instrumental as Wasps claimed a hard-fought but deserved 17-15 win over Bath to continue their 100 percent start to the new campaign.
The livewire scrum-half was at the heart of all the Londoners' best attacking work and had a hand in two of his side's three tries.
Tom Varndell helped himself to two more at the Recreation Ground to take his tally to four in two matches since his summer switch from Leicester, while fellow winger David Lemi also touched down.
Captain Michael Claassens had put Bath ahead with an early try, but the hosts could not build on that platform and slipped to a second successive defeat, Ben Skirving's late, late try not quite enough with fly-half Ryan Davis missing the subsequent conversion that would have earned his side a share of the spoils.
It was Bath who made the faster under the Saturday sunshine and their early endeavours were rewarded with Claassens' try on four minutes.
The Bath skipper pounced for an opportunistic score, taking a quick tap-penalty to himself and diving over from close range under a pile of bodies.
Davis slotted the conversion, much to the delight of the record 11,300 home crowd.
But after a rather lethargic start, Wasps roused themselves midway through the half, cajoled by the non-stop energy of Simpson.
With Danny Cipriani having missed two long-range penalty attempts, the visitors were finally on the board when some neat footwork from Simpson set up Varndell who breezed over for a try, although Cipriani was again wayward with the conversion.
Scintillating
Davis showed his opposite number how it was done with a penalty shortly afterwards that extended Bath's lead to 10-5, but some more scintillating play from Simpson ensured Wasps were soon on terms.
There appeared to be nothing on when he sniped down the blindside of a scrum deep inside his own half, but Simpson's searing pace took him unchallenged to Bath's 22 and Varndell finished well after sweeping past a weak Joe Maddock challenge.
Cipriani's fourth successive missed kick meant Wasps were only level, rather than ahead, but the England hopeful made amends with a leading role in his side's third try.
His defence-splitting pass set centre Steve Kefu away and Lemi was on hand to provide the clinical finish with a neat dummy - Cipriani finally finding his range with the conversion to send Wasps in at the interval 17-10 to the good.
The visitors maintained their seven-point advantage after the restart, but Bath began to exert pressure inside the final quarter, resulting in prop Tim Payne being sin-binned for pulling down a scrum.
But Wasps' temporary seven-man pack raised their game to keep out the increasingly frenzied attacking efforts of Bath and the home side spurned a golden opportunity to score when substitute Jack Cuthbert flicked a forward pass to unmarked wing Matt Banahan.
Their efforts were finally rewarded in injury-time after Payne had received a second yellow-card, but Skirving's try was rendered nothing more than a consolation as Davis failed with the conversion.
