Wasps take sting out of Quins

Late tries from Danny Care and David Strettle could not stop Wasps grinding out a 21-20 victory over Harlequins on Sunday.

Wasps looked in control for much of this Guinness Premiership London derby at Twickenham, played in front of a record crowd of 76,716.

And it was not until ten minutes before the final whistle that Harlequins exploded into life to set up a truly nailbiting finish.

Danny Cipriani added six points with the boot but missed a further 12 that would have given his side a far more comfortable ride.

Cipriani, making his first start since breaking his leg in October, was obviously lacking match practice and Wasps director of rugby Tony Hanks could easily have regretted his decision to throw him straight back in at the deep end.

David Walder, however, came off the bench as a replacement fifteen minutes into the second half and slotted a further two kicks to keep the scoreboard ticking over for his side.

Danger

Wasps struck after just three minutes, when George Skivington exploited a weak point in the Quins defence and broke away virtually unopposed.

With their line spread wide on either side to counter the danger from Wasps' backs, Skivington picked up the ball at the base of the ruck and burst through the undefended middle.

The big lock carried the ball deep into Harlequins territory before booting upfield to spark a frantic chase between Strettle and Joe Simpson.

And when Strettle fumbled on his own line the Wasps scrum-half pounced on the ball for the try to give his side an early 5-0 lead.

Cipriani, obviously rusty after his long lay-off, was unable to add the extras, making a complete hash of what would normally have been a certain two points for the 22-year-old.

Ten minutes later Quins fly-half Nick Evans closed the gap to two points with a fine long range penalty and after another five added three more to make it 6-5.

Cipriani made amends for his terrible conversion kick in the 23rd minute when he slotted between the sticks from wide on the right to regain the lead for Wasps.

Snatched

Just short of the half hour mark Cipriani narrowly failed to find the distance with a fine long range penalty attempt.

But he was on target to take the score to 11-6 four minutes later when Quins were pinged for going off their feet right in front of the posts.

Evans horribly miss-kicked a straightforward penalty on 36 minutes and one minute before half time sent another wide to take his side into the break trailing by five.

Cipriani's lack of match play became evident again when he snatched at another penalty kick just after the restart and on 47 minutes he sent yet another sailing wide of the posts.

Four minutes later his missed again, this time from a tighter angle, following an incident involving Simpson who, worryingly, was assisted from the field clutching his arm.

Cipriani was brought off five minutes later and in the 61st minute replacement Walder nailed a tough kick from wide on the right to take the score to 14-6 and put Wasps in control.

But with just 13 minutes left on the clock a quick penalty by Care gave Quins the momentum going forward to put the Wasps line under serious threat.

Thrilling

Care was involved in every move as his side continued to pile pressure onto Wasps and, fittingly, it was the scrum-half who finished off the move when he burrowed through for the touch down.

This time Evans found the target to close the gap to a single point and set up a thrilling final ten minutes.

Five minutes later though and it was back to square one for Quins after a move started by Simon Shaw saw Wasps swarming upfield to end with flanker John Hart barging over for the try.

Walder added the extras to restore his side's eight point advantage and take the score to 21-13.

But with the game seemingly over Strettle burst free for a last ditch try as the game entered its final minute and Evans converted to close the gap back to one point.

But, desperately needing a drop-goal, there was simply not enough time on the clock to get into position and when they lost possession the chance was gone.