Wasps go clear with Cup win
Wasps earned a 12-3 victory over Top 14 side Bayonne to edge closer to a place in the quarter-finals of the Amlin Challenge Cup.
Last Updated: 17/12/09 10:12pm
Wasps earned a 12-3 victory over Top 14 side Bayonne to edge closer to a place in the quarter-finals of the Amlin Challenge Cup.
Dave Walder kicked three penalties and dropped a goal for the Guinness Premiership side to move seven points clear of their French opponents at the top of Pool 4.
Walder kicked two first-half penalties and then wrapped things up 10 minutes from the end, although had earlier missed two penalty attempts to put the game beyond the host side.
However, it was the Wasps front five that laid the foundations for their 13 straight win in the tournament, playing with 14 men for 20 minutes following the sin-binning of Serge Betsen and George Skivington.
Their overall defensive effort maintained a stranglehold over the Bayonne attack, with the lively outside-half Craig Gower and replacement full-back Manny Edmonds denied despite showing plenty of flair.
The only points Bayonne could manage came from the boot of Spanish international scrum-half Cedric Garcia, although he was wide with another attempt as was his half-back partner Gower.
Walder's success with the boot - he also scored 12 points in last weekend's victory at Adams Park - meant the fit-again Danny Cipriani did not get a chance to come off the bench and continue his comeback from injury.
It was the second time the 22-year-old, who has just recovered from a hairline fracture of his right fibula suffered at Northampton in October, had been included among the replacements without seeing any action.
