One more game for Dallaglio

Lawrence Dallaglio will play one more game ahead of retirement after Wasps beat Bath 21-10 to reach the Guinness Premiership final.

However, the rapturous atmosphere at Adams Park following the victory will be tempered by the apparently serious injury suffered by Danny Cipriani.

It was hardly a vintage performance from the side marshalled by Ian McGeechan and Shaun Edwards; indeed, Wasps were on the back foot for most of the opening period.

Early pressure came from the visitors, with Wasps responding by giving away a succession of penalties. But, aside from an Alex Crockett try, Bath failed to make to their superior possession tell - crucial in hindsight.

Wasps then delivered the sucker punch: with the ball being worked quickly from the ruck, tries from Fraser Waters and Riki Flutey placed them 14-7 ahead at half time.

Another try from Tom Palmer followed in the second half and, with Bath now needing two tries, not even the sin-binning of Waters with 10 minutes remaining could prevent Wasps from sealing their recent fine run of form with a Twickenham appearance.

Late changes

Both sides had to make late changes to their front rows: Bath leaving Lee Mears out after the hooker failed a fitness test on his left shoulder, with opposite number Raphael Ibanez also sidelined.

Pieter Dixon and Joe Ward came in respectively. Nevertheless, Wasps were able to include Paul Sackey after the winger passed a late fitness test.

Bath should have put the first points on the board when Wasps collapsed the scrum after three minutes; however, Olly Barkley's penalty swung right of the posts.

The centre had converted all 15 of his previous kicks but promptly missed again - a much easier opportunity - two minutes later, meaning that six points had already gone begging.

Penalised once more for not binding, Barkley this time kicked for the corner only for Wasps to win the resulting line-out and clear their lines.

The same happened when Bath earned a fourth penalty on 17 minutes, with Wasps on this occasion earning a subsequent penalty for not releasing.

Wasps had hardly left their own half after 20 minutes - but neither had Bath made their pressure pay. The home side finally put some phases together, but Cipriani's pass to Sackey was forward.

The match soon reverted to type, however, when a cross-field kick from James created pressure on the Wasps line. Winning the line-out, they initially looked to be dealing with it.

However, the ball was then played back into the dead-ball area, where, unable to boot clear, Cipriani instead passed to Josh Lewsey. The full-back then fumbled the ball, with Crockett pouncing.

James converted and, pressed into action, Wasps immediately looked to make inroads. And, placing pressure on Bath's defence for only the second time in the match, they responded.

It came after James Haskell made ground - his work preceding a left-to-right sweep in front of Bath's posts - Eoin Reddan, Cipriani and Flutey all involved, the latter drawing James in and allowing Waters to saunter through on an angled run.

The fly-half converted, with the second try coming five minutes before half time, play this time being switched in the opposite direction following a scrum, with both Cipriani and Sackey coming close before Flutey touched down.

Cipriani kicked again and, ahead of the interval, Wasps had turned the game on its head. Bath were by now also missing Michael Lipman - the flanker suffering a cut lip - but nevertheless had the better of the opening exchanges in the second half.

Injury

But, once again, they failed to make their possession pay. The game was then halted on 48 minutes while Cipriani's injury was dealt with - the 20-year-old emerging from a ruck screaming in pain after an apparent tackle from Barkley.

With Mark van Gisbergen on as a replacement at full-back, Flutey switched to fly-half with Lewsey moving to the centres.

Bath sought to capitalise on their opponents' rejigged line-up, with Barkley finally finding the target with a long-range penalty after 56 minutes.

Wasps began to settle and were up and running again two minutes later following a break by Tom Voyce, the resulting ruck feeding Palmer to crash over with van Gisbergen converting.

Having suffered an apparent arm injury in creating the score, Voyce was then replaced by Mark McMillan, with Dallaglio departing Adams Park for the final time after 64 minutes to a standing ovation.

Bath were awarded a penalty for offside three minutes later and elected to go for the corner; however, from the resulting line-out, Wasps forced the knock on.

Waters was then singled out and sin-binned for persistent offsides, with the last 10 minutes of the match therefore seeing Wasps attempting to mask their one-man disadvantage.

Wasps then proceeded to put together phase after phase - often refusing to venture much beyond their own 22 - as they ran down the clock.