London Irish 13-17 Wasps: Visitors fight back to hand Exiles their eighth consecutive defeat
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 26/11/17 6:11pm
London Irish went down to an eighth consecutive Aviva Premiership defeat as Wasps staged a late revival to win 17-13 at the Madejski Stadium.
Lethargic Wasps had trailed 10-0 but they scored three tries in the last 25 minutes to leave Irish five points adrift at the bottom of the table.
Josh Bassett, Ashley Johnson and Nizaam Carr scored Wasps' tries with Jimmy Gopperth converting one. Alex Lewington scored a try for Irish with Tommy Bell adding a conversion and two penalties.
Wasps flanker Thomas Young tweaked his calf in the warm-up so he was a late withdrawal, with Guy Thompson moving up from the bench to take his place.
The first quarter was scoreless but it was Irish who dominated it, as it took the visitors until the 18th minute to break out of their own half.
When they did, it was from the first flowing three-quarter move of the game and culminated in a period of sustained Wasps pressure.
The hosts were forced to concede a number of scrum penalties and the repeated infringements resulted in a yellow card for New Zealand international Ben Franks, with Harry Elrington coming on at prop and wing Lewington being sacrificed for the 10 minutes that Franks was in the bin.
Wasps posed the greater attacking threat with Gaby Lovobalavu and Bassett looking dangerous, but elementary errors and ill-discipline allowed the home pack the larger share of possession.
On the half-hour mark, Bell's penalty resulted in the first points of the match as Wasps failed to capitalise on the absence of Franks with their handling and ball retention being extremely poor.
It was 3-0 to Irish at the end of the first half and they began the second strongly by pinning their opponents in their own half. However, they lacked any creative ability to make it count and Wasps' defence was hardly threatened initially as the hosts passed the ball from side to side.
After 51 minutes the first try arrived when a telegraphed pass from Lovobalavu was easily intercepted by Lewington, who raced in from 20 metres, before Johnson finished off a driving lineout to get Wasps on the scoreboard.
Bell extended Irish's lead before the visitors replaced Lovobalavu with Danny Cipriani as they tried to save themselves from an embarrassing defeat.
It worked, as slick handling from Christian Wade and Willie le Roux created a try for Bassett as Wasps raised their game.
With 13 minutes remaining they took the lead for the first time when a splendid run from Robson and a well-judged pass gave Carr an easy run-in.
