Worsley adds to Leeds' woe
Joe Worsley scored Wasps' opening try in their 25-17 victory over Leeds Carnegie at Adams Park.
By Phil Jackson
Last Updated: 05/01/08 6:01pm
Joe Worsley scored the opening try on his return for Wasps as the Londoners beat Leeds Carnegie 25-17 at Adams Park.
Fraser Waters (38) and Josh Lewsey (48) scored the Heineken Cup holders' other two tries as Wasps recorded their fourth win of the season and Lawrence Dallaglio's side have now lost only one of their last 11 matches in all competitions.
Leeds scored 14 unanswered points in the second-half through Mike MacDonald (60) and Joe Bedford's (69) converted tries, but still slumped to a fifth straight league defeat.
Wasps had slipped into cruise control by the hour mark, but were made to sweat for the last 10 minutes before grinding out the victory.
Dominance
England flanker Worsley has been out of action since suffering a hamstring injury in the World Cup final in October, but he showed no signs of rust 21 minutes in, when he capitalised on a superb break by Irish scrum-half Eoin Reddan after Danny Cipriani had kicked Wasps into a 6-0 lead.
Waters finished off a second minutes before half-time after Worsley's initial run and, despite Cipriani missing the extras, Wasps had an 18-0 lead.
Full-back Leigh Hinton did get the visitors on the board on the stroke of half-time, but Leeds still went into the break trailing by 15 points.
Lewsey, who switched from left wing to full-back after Michael van Gisbergen's withdrawal, added a third after the interval and Wasps had a commanding 25-3 lead.
Consolation
Leeds did launch a spirited revival through MacDonald and Bedford's converted tries as Leeds in the last half hour to reduce the deficit to eight points.
But, despite going close in the dying minutes through winger Tom Biggs, Leeds took nothing out of the game and remain rooted to the bottom of the Guinness Premiershp table.
Waps leapfrog Newcastle Falcons in the standings meanwhile, and now sit seventh in the Guinness Premiership table.