Wasps director of rugby Ian McGeechan was delighted as Wasps made up for their EDF Cup defeat to Leicester.
Boss praises work of defence coach after historic win
Wasps director of rugby Ian McGeechan was delighted as Wasps made up for their EDF Cup defeat to Leicester.
McGeechan's side won at Welford Road for the first time in their history, gaining revenge for last weekend's semi-final heartache.
Two tries from Fraser Waters and a superb Danny Cipriani score downed the Tigers 24-19 to give Wasps real hope of making the play-offs.
McGeechan was quick to pay tribute to work done by defence coach Shaun Edwards after his team weathered periods of enormous pressure from Leicester.
He said: "You have to give a lot of credit to Shaun Edwards because the defence was excellent
Dominate
"You don't often dominate a Leicester pack and we knew that we needed to do it here. We did it well and the other parts of our game were also right.
"We were all disappointed with the performance last week. It wasn't good enough in a Wasps shirt. We were second best in most areas and that hurt everyone.
"We were brutally honest with ourselves after the game last week.
"It's getting tighter and tighter and there will be a few more twists and turns before the end of the season.
"We have got to keep winning but if we keep playing like that, we will give ourselves a chance."
After Andy Goode's early penalty, Waters grabbed his tries in quick succession.
First Wasps won a scrum against the head and the centre sped away before Leicester could react.
He then latched onto David Walder's superb looped pass to stun Welford Road.
Leicester fightback
Fly-half Goode hauled Leicester back into the game with two penalties, and six minutes after the break Leicester did cross as Goode fed Seru Rabeni who powered over.
Goode converted to give Tigers the lead but Walder's penalty from distance restored Wasps' advantage.
With 18 minutes remaining Cipriani jinked past several Leicester tackles to put the visitors in the driving seat.
Although another Goode penalty brought the Tigers within range they could not find the decisive score to leave head coach Marcelo Loffreda frustrated.
He said: "It is very difficult to play against the same team twice in such a short space of time.
"We knew they were going to come back at us and try to get back at us for the Cardiff game.
"In the first half we lacked concentration and made a lot of mistakes. We lost our shape in defence and it cost us two tries.
"We lacked intensity and physicality at the breakdown and we didn't compete in the set piece as well as we did in Cardiff.
"We have to make sure that we finish the season as the most consistent of the teams around us because it is very close."
