Wasps 41-10 Harlequins: Nathan Hughes shines for Wasps
Last Updated: 22/10/17 8:35pm
Nathan Hughes terrorised Harlequins as Wasps swept aside their Aviva Premiership rivals with a 41-10 bonus-point victory in a Champions Cup match in Coventry.
The England No 8 spearheaded Wasps' five-try assault on Quins as Dai Young's men ended a miserable run of five straight defeats in style at the Ricoh Arena.
Joe Marler was perhaps fortunate to avoid a red card for a forearm smash to Will Rowlands' midriff, another unsavoury disciplinary incident for the England prop.
Hughes was the architect of Wasps' first try and produced two stunning hand-offs that sent first Chris Robshaw then Dave Ward hurtling backwards through the air.
Harlequins endured a tough night, their mood worsened in defeat on a day that had started with Marland Yarde being dropped from the match squad.
Quins issued a curt statement that the England wing had been "withdrawn from the squad following an internal disciplinary matter".
Harlequins centre Francis Saili suffered a nasty-looking injury late on, carried from the field on a stretcher following lengthy treatment owing to a head-first collision with Joe Launchbury's hip in a miscued tackle.
Wasps belied their wretched form from the off, Hughes storming round the front of a lineout to send Robson home for the opening score.
Gopperth then charged down England starlet Smith as Wasps forced a quickfire second try. Wade beat Smith to the loose ball in Quins' 22, scooped up and dotted down.
Kiwi sharpshooter Gopperth nailed his second conversion. Just seven minutes in, Wasps led 14-0.
Attack at length and with no little width as they might, Quins could not break Wasps so the visitors were forced to settle for just a solitary Smith penalty in a bleak first-half.
Care had a possible score chalked off for obstruction, and then Mike Brown was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on.
The England full-back was rightly given his marching orders for illegally denying Wasps a try, with Willie le Roux firing out what would have been a scoring pass to Wade.
Wasps scored straight from the penalty lineout, though, with hooker Johnson burrowing home from a rolling maul.
Gopperth's conversion pushed the hosts into a 21-3 lead they held until the break, with the irrepressible Hughes squeezing a Quins maul into touch seemingly on his own.
Referee Mathieu Raynal had to calm down Marler as the players left the field, with the fiery Quins prop right on the edge.
Marler overstepped acceptable boundaries after the break, and duly paid with his yellow card, for that forearm smash on Rowlands.
Quins replacement Saili crossed for a consolation score, before Wasps rallied.
Josh Bassett wriggled home for Wasps' bonus-point score thanks to Elliot Daly's wide ball, before Wade glossed the result with an intercept try.
